The world's largest cargo plane dimensions. The largest passenger aircraft in the world. Other large passenger aircraft of the world

Ever since people learned to design flying vehicles, they began to be used to transport heavy and bulky cargo. Over the history of aeronautics, many transport aircraft have been created that impress with their enormous size. In today's selection we present to your attention the 11 largest cargo aircraft in the world.

11 PHOTOS

The An-225 is currently the largest aircraft in the world; it has an ultra-high payload capacity and can lift about 250 tons into the air. The An-225 was originally designed and built to transport components of the Energia launch vehicle and the Buran reusable spacecraft.

This transport aircraft is a modified version of the Boeing 747, it was built and used exclusively to transport parts of the Boeing 787 aircraft. What makes the Dreamlifter special is its unusual appearance.

The Super Guppy cargo plane was produced in five copies and today only one of them is in use. It is owned by NASA and is used to deliver large cargo and spacecraft parts.

The An-124 is a heavy military transport aircraft for long-distance transport, the largest of all serial commercial cargo aircraft in the world. It was designed primarily for air transport of intercontinental ballistic missile launchers, as well as for transporting heavy military equipment. The carrying capacity of the An-124 is 120 tons. Aircraft maintenance can only be carried out in a special hangar built for the company that owns the An-124 from metal structures (a similar principle http://ctcholding.kz/uslugi/bystrovozvodimye-zdaniya/iz-metallokonstruktsij/promyshlennye-zdaniya).

American military transport aircraft, second in terms of payload capacity after the An-124. The Lockheed C-5 Galaxy is capable of carrying six helicopters or two large tanks in its cargo bay. The total weight that the aircraft can transport is more than 118 tons.

A jet cargo aircraft for transporting large cargo, which was developed on the basis of the Airbus A300 series. The main purpose of the A300-600ST is to replace the Super Guppy transport aircraft. Beluga owes its name to its body shape, which resembles a beluga whale. The Beluga's carrying capacity is 47 tons.

Soviet-made heavy transport aircraft, the largest turboprop aircraft in the world. Currently, the aircraft is used by the Russian Air Force and the Ukrainian cargo airline Antonov Airlines. The carrying capacity of the An-22 is 60 tons.

The C-17 Globemaster III is one of the most common military transport aircraft of the US Air Force and is still in use today. The aircraft is designed to transport military equipment and troops, as well as perform tactical missions. The C-17's carrying capacity is more than 76 tons.

The A400M Atlas was designed and built as an international project for the air forces of France, Germany, Italy, Great Britain and several other countries. It is a four-engine turboprop aircraft with a payload capacity of up to 37 tons.

A twin-engine military transport aircraft of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force, created as a replacement for the Kawasaki C-1 and Lockheed C-130 Hercules aircraft. The C-1's lifting capacity is 37 and a half tons.

The An-225 Mriya (translated from Ukrainian as “dream”) is the heaviest cargo-lifting aircraft ever taken into the air. The maximum take-off weight of the aircraft is 640 tons. The reason for the construction of the An-225 was the need to create an aviation transport system for the Soviet reusable spacecraft Buran project. The plane exists in a single copy.

The aircraft was designed in the USSR and built in 1988 at the Kiev Mechanical Plant.

"Mriya" set a world record for take-off weight and carrying capacity. On March 22, 1989, the An-225 flew with a load of 156.3 tons, thereby simultaneously breaking 110 world aviation records, which is a record in itself.

Since the start of operation, the aircraft has flown 3,740 hours. If we assume that the average flight speed (taking into account take-off, climb, cruising, descent, approach) is about 500 km/h, then we can calculate the approximate value of the kilometers traveled: 500 x 3740 = 1,870,000 km (more than 46 revolutions around the Earth along the equator).

The scale of the An-225 is amazing: the length of the aircraft is 84 meters, the height is 18 meters (like a 6-story 4-entrance house)

A visual comparison of the Mriya and the passenger Boeing 747.

If we take the largest of the Boeing 747-800 as a basis, then the length of the An-225 will be 8 meters longer, and the wingspan will be 20 meters longer.
Compared to the Airbus A380, the Mriya is 11 meters longer, and its wingspan is almost 9 meters longer.

It happens that the airport does not have adequate parking for such a large aircraft, and it is parked directly on the runway.
Of course, we are talking about an alternate runway, if the airport has one.

The wingspan is 88.4 meters and the area is 905 m²

The only aircraft superior to the An-225 in terms of wingspan is the Hughes H-4 Hercules, which belongs to the class of flying boats. The ship took off only once, in 1947. The history of this aircraft was reflected in the film "The Aviator"

Since the Buran spacecraft itself and the blocks of the Energia launch vehicle had dimensions exceeding the dimensions of the Mriya’s cargo compartment, the new aircraft provided for securing cargo from the outside. In addition, it was planned that the aircraft would be used as the first stage for the launch of a spacecraft.

The formation of a wake from a large cargo attached to the top of the aircraft required the installation of a double-finned tail unit to avoid aerodynamic shading.

The aircraft is equipped with 6 D-18T engines.
At takeoff mode, each engine develops a thrust of 23.4 tons (or 230 kN), i.e. the total thrust of all 6 engines is 140.5 tons (1380 kN)

It can be assumed that each engine develops about 12,500 horsepower at takeoff!

The D-18T engines of the An-225 aircraft are the same as those on the An-124 Ruslan.
The height of such an engine is 3 m, width 2.8 m, and weight more than 4 tons.

The starting system is air, with electrical automatic control. The auxiliary power unit, consisting of two TA-12 turbo units installed in the left and right fairings of the chassis, provides autonomous power to all systems and engine starting.

The mass of fuel in the tanks is 365 tons, it is placed in 13 wing caisson tanks.
The aircraft can remain in the air for 18 hours and cover a distance of over 15,000 km.

The refueling time for such a vehicle ranges from half an hour to a day and a half, and the number of tankers depends on their capacity (from 5 to 50 tons), i.e. from 7 to 70 tankers.

The aircraft's fuel consumption is 15.9 tons/h (in cruising mode)
When fully loaded, the aircraft can remain in the sky without refueling for no more than 2 hours.

The chassis includes a two-post nose and 14-post main (7 posts on each side) supports.
Each stand has two wheels. Total 32 wheels.

Wheels require replacement every 90 landings.
Tires for Mriya are produced at the Yaroslavl Tire Plant. The price of one tire is about $1000.

On the nose strut there are wheels measuring 1120 x 450 mm, and on the main strut there are wheels measuring 1270 x 510 mm.
The pressure inside is 12 atmospheres.

Since 2001, the An-225 has been performing commercial cargo transportation as part of Antonov Airlines.

Dimensions of the cargo compartment: length - 43 m, width - 6.4 m, height - 4.4 m.
The cargo cabin of the aircraft is sealed, which allows the transportation of various types of cargo. Inside the cabin you can place 16 standard containers, up to 80 cars and even heavy-duty BelAZ dump trucks. There is enough space here to fit the entire body of a Boeing 737.

Access to the cargo compartment is through the nose of the aircraft, which folds up.

The process of opening/closing the cargo compartment ramp takes no more than 10 minutes.

To unfold the ramp, the aircraft performs the so-called “elephant bow.”
The nose landing gear tilts forward, and the weight of the aircraft is transferred to auxiliary supports, which are installed under the front threshold of the cargo compartment.

Auxiliary support.

Control panel for the aircraft's "squat" system.

This loading method has a number of advantages compared to the Boeing 747 (which is loaded through a compartment in the side of the fuselage.

"Mriya" is a record holder for the weight of cargo transported: commercial - 247 tons (which is four times more than the maximum payload of a Boeing 747), commercial monocargo - 187.6 tons, and an absolute record for carrying capacity - 253.8 tons. On June 10, 2010, the longest cargo in the history of air transportation was transported - two windmill blades, each 42.1 m long.

To ensure a safe flight, the center of gravity of an aircraft with cargo must be within certain limits along its length. The load master performs loading in strict accordance with the instructions, after which the co-pilot checks the correct placement of the cargo and reports this to the crew commander, who makes a decision on the possibility of carrying out the flight and is responsible for this.

The aircraft is equipped with an on-board loading complex consisting of four lifting mechanisms, each with a lifting capacity of 5 tons.
In addition, two floor winches are provided for loading non-self-propelled wheeled vehicles and cargo on the loading ramp.

This time, the An-225 was chartered by the French engineering company Alstom to transport 170 tons of cargo from Zurich, Switzerland to Bahrain with refueling in Athens and Cairo.

This is a turbine rotor, a turbogenerator for producing electricity and components.

Flight manager Vadim Nikolaevich Deniskov.

To tow the An-225 aircraft, it is impossible to use the carrier of aircraft from other companies, so the carrier is transported on board the aircraft.

And since the aircraft is not equipped with a rear cargo hatch and the towing carrier is unloaded and loaded through the front cargo hatch, which requires a full cycle of squatting of the aircraft onto the front support, as a result, at least 30 minutes are lost and the resource of the aircraft structure and squatting system is unjustifiably consumed.

Technician-foreman for aircraft maintenance.

To ensure turns when the aircraft moves on the ground, the last four rows of the main support struts are made orientable.

Aircraft maintenance technician: specialization: hydraulic system and landing gear.

The heavy weight of the aircraft causes the landing gear to leave marks on the asphalt.

Ladder and hatch to the cockpit.

The passenger compartment is divided into 2 parts: in the front there is the aircraft crew, and in the rear there are accompanying and maintenance personnel.
The cabins are sealed separately - they are separated by a wing.

The rear part of the accompanying cabin is intended for eating, working with technical documentation and holding conferences.
The aircraft has 18 seats for rest of crew members and members of the engineering and technical team - 6 seats in the front cabin and 12 in the rear.

Staircase and hatch to the attendant cabin at the rear of the aircraft.

Technical compartment located at the rear of the cockpit.

On the shelves you can see the blocks that ensure the operation of various aircraft systems, and the pipelines of the pressurization and air conditioning system and the anti-icing system. All aircraft systems are highly automated and require minimal crew intervention during operation. Their work is supported by 34 on-board computers.

Wall of the front center section spar. It is installed (from top to bottom): the slats transmission and air bleed pipelines from the engines.
In front of it are stationary cylinders of the fire protection system with the fire extinguishing agent "Freon".

Stickers are souvenirs from numerous visitors on the panel on the plane's emergency escape hatch flap.

The farthest point from the base airport that the plane managed to visit was the island of Tahiti, part of French Polynesia.
The distance along the shortest arc of the globe is about 16,400 km.

Rynda An-225
Vladimir Vladimirovich Mason mentioned in the engraving is an aircraft operation engineer who worked at Mriya for many years.

The aircraft commander (PIC) is Vladimir Yurievich Mosin.

To become an An-225 commander, you must have at least 5 years of experience flying an An-124 aircraft as a commander.

Weight and alignment control is simplified by installing a load-measuring system on the chassis.

The aircraft crew consists of 6 people:
aircraft commander, co-pilot, navigator, senior flight engineer, aviation equipment flight engineer, flight radio operator.

To reduce efforts on the throttles and increase the accuracy of setting engine operating modes, a remote engine control system is provided. In this case, the pilot makes a relatively small effort to use cables to move the lever of an electromechanical device installed on the engine, which reproduces this movement on the fuel regulator lever with the necessary force and accuracy. For the convenience of joint control during takeoff and landing, the throttle levers of the outermost engines (RUD1 and RUD6) are linked, respectively, with RUD2 and RUD5.

The helm of the largest aircraft in the world.

Aircraft control is booster i.e. The control surfaces are deflected solely with the help of hydraulic steering actuators, if they fail, it is impossible to control the aircraft manually (with an increase in the required effort). Therefore, quadruple redundancy was applied. The mechanical part of the control system (from the steering wheel and pedals to hydraulic steering actuators) consists of rigid rods and cables.
The total length of these cables is: the aileron control system in the fuselage - about 30 meters, in each console (left, right) of the wing - approximately 35 meters; elevator and rudder control systems - about 65 meters each.

When the plane is empty, 2400 m of runway is enough for takeoff and landing.
Takeoff with maximum weight - 3500 m, landing with maximum weight - 3300 m.

At the executive start, the engines begin to warm up, which takes about 10 minutes.

This prevents engine surge during takeoff and ensures maximum takeoff thrust. Of course, this requirement leads to the fact that: takeoff is carried out during a period of minimal airport congestion, or the plane waits a long time for its turn to take off, missing scheduled flights.

The takeoff and landing speed depends on the takeoff and landing weight of the aircraft and ranges from 240 km/h to 280 km/h.

The climb is carried out at a speed of 560 km/h, with a vertical speed of 8 m/s.

At an altitude of 7100 meters, the speed increases to 675 km/h with further continuation of the climb to the flight level.

Cruising speed of An-225 - 850 km/h
When calculating cruising speed, the weight of the aircraft and the flight range that the aircraft must cover are taken into account.

Dmitry Viktorovich Antonov - senior captain.

The middle panel of the pilots' instrument panel.

Backup instruments: attitude indicator and altitude indicator. Fuel lever position indicator (FLU), engine thrust indicator (ET). Indicators of deviation of control surfaces and takeoff and landing devices (slats, flaps, spoilers).

The senior flight engineer's instrument panel.

In the lower left corner there is a side panel with controls for the hydraulic complex and a chassis position alarm. Top left panel of the aircraft fire protection system. At the top right is a panel with controls and control devices: starting the APU, the supercharging and air conditioning system, the anti-icing system and the signal panel block. At the bottom there is a panel with controls and controls for the fuel supply system, engine operation control and on-board automated control system (BASK) of all aircraft parameters.

Senior onboard engineer - Polishchuk Alexander Nikolaevich.

Instrument panel for monitoring engine operation.

On the left, at the top is a vertical indicator of the position of the fuel levers. Large round instruments are speed indicators for the high-pressure compressor and engine fan. Small round instruments are indicators of oil temperature at the engine inlet. The block of vertical instruments at the bottom - indicators of the amount of oil in the engine oil tanks.

Aeronautical engineer's dashboard.
Controls and monitoring devices for the aircraft's power supply system and oxygen system are located here.

Navigator - Anatoly Binyatovich Abdullaev.

Flight over the territory of Greece.

Navigator-instructor - Yaroslav Ivanovich Koshitsky.

Flight operator - Gennady Yurievich Antipov.
The ICAO call sign for the An-225 on the flight from Zurich to Athens was ADB-3038.

On-board engineer - Yuri Anatolyevich Mindar.

Athens airport runway.

Landing at night on Mriya is carried out instrumentally, i.e. using instruments, from the leveling height and visually before touching down. According to the crew, one of the most difficult landings is in Kabul, which is associated with high altitude and many obstacles. The approach begins at a speed of 340 km/h to an altitude of 200 meters, then the speed is gradually reduced.

Landing is carried out at a speed of 295 km/h with fully extended mechanization. It is allowed to touch the runway at a vertical speed of 6 m/s. After touching the runway, reverse thrust is immediately switched to engines 2 to 5, while engines 1 and 6 are left at idle. The landing gear is braked at a speed of 140-150 km/h until the aircraft comes to a complete stop.

The aircraft's service life is 8,000 flight hours, 2,000 takeoffs and landings, 25 calendar years.

The aircraft can still fly until December 21, 2013 (25 years since the start of its operation), after which a thorough study of its technical condition will be carried out and the necessary work will be carried out to ensure an extension of the calendar service life to 45 years.

Due to the high cost of transportation on the An-225, orders appear only for very long and very heavy cargo, when transportation by land is not possible. Flights are random: from 2-3 per month to 1-2 per year. From time to time there is talk about building a second copy of the An-225 aircraft, but this requires an appropriate order and appropriate funding. To complete the construction, an amount of approximately $90 million is required, and taking into account testing, it increases to $120 million.

This is perhaps one of the most beautiful and impressive aircraft in the world.

Thanks to Antonov Airlines for their help in organizing the photography!
Special thanks to Vadim Nikolaevich Deniskov for his help in writing the text for the post!

Air travel comes into life

It’s hard to surprise anyone with air travel these days. People who want to achieve success in life (primarily in business) have to fly to different parts of the planet, sometimes overcoming their fear of being in the air.

In any case, there is no alternative to traveling on this super-fast mode of transport in terms of covering significant distances in a fairly short period of time.

Airplanes are not for passengers

In this case, a slightly different problem often arises: if you do not get flight tickets ahead of time, then they simply may not be available at the right time - they will be bought up by the same sufferers. However, those who need to go to points where the most heavy-duty aircraft on the planet would fly hardly have to worry about this. There would be enough space for almost everyone who expresses a desire to purchase a ticket here. However, it is worth saying that the airlines that own them usually place such aircraft on the busiest routes.

Meanwhile, the plane, which holds a world record in terms of carrying capacity, does not make passenger flights. It was generally designed in the eighties of the last century for completely different purposes - to ensure the transportation of necessary materials (including rocket components) for the grandiose Soviet space program Buran. For such a large-scale project, an appropriate, powerful aircraft was needed. Then Kyiv designers developed the An-225, which received the name “Mriya” (in Ukrainian such a beautiful word means “dream”). Until now, such an aircraft exists in a single copy.

How much does "Dream" raise?

Its dimensions in comparison with other similar vehicles are amazing. "Mriya" reaches 84 meters in length and eighteen meters in height. For comparison, a six-story, four-entrance residential building will have similar parameters. The dimensions of the An-225 cargo compartment are also very impressive - it is as much as forty-three meters long and about four and a half meters high.

According to the designers, this cargo-lifting aircraft was supposed to transport up to two hundred and fifty tons of materials needed for the space program per flight. Moreover, not only the spaciousness of the above-mentioned cabin was taken into account - the design included fastenings on the hull of the aircraft, for the possibility of transporting various cargoes outside.

The Mriya's first flight took place at the end of 1988, and the very next year it broke over a hundred world aviation records, carrying about 156 tons of necessary materials. Since its debut in airspace, the An-225 has flown nearly two million kilometers, which roughly equates to more than four dozen orbits around the earth's equator.

Passenger transport giant

As for exclusively passenger transportation, the undisputed leader here is still the giant Airbus 380. Developed and put into production in the 2000s, it is capable of lifting up to one and a half hundred tons of cargo, and its maximum permitted flight weight is 560 tons. Passengers on board this The Airbus lifts 525 in a two-deck, three-class configuration, and as much as 853 in a single-class configuration.

During its approximately ten-year operational life, any serious incidents occurred with the Airbus 380 twice. Moreover, in both situations, only the nerves of the passengers were damaged. So in the future there is hardly any need to be afraid of flying on it.

The An-225 Mriya is a unique transport aircraft characterized by its ultra-high payload capacity. It was developed by the OKB im. Antonova. The project was led by Viktor Ilyich Tolmachev.

From 1984 to 1988, this unique aircraft was competently designed and created at the Kiev Mechanical Plant. It made its first flight on December 21, 1988. At the beginning of the development of the project, 2 aircraft were laid down, and now one Mriya is used by Antonov Airlines. As for the second car, its readiness is estimated at only 70%.

Technical characteristics of An-225

This aircraft model has a six-engine turbojet high-wing aircraft with a swept wing and two-tail tail, as well as 6 D-18T aircraft engines. They were developed by ZMKB "Progress" named after. A. G. Ivanchenko.

The An-225 Mriya is a jet transport aircraft with a huge payload capacity, which received the name Cossack according to NATO coding. It was designed back in the days of the Soviet Union by chief designer V.I. Tolmachev. at OKB im. Antonov. First flew on December 21, 1988. Nowadays, only one copy of the Mriya is in working flight condition, another is 70% ready, but due to a lack of funding (about $100 million is required), work is not being carried out. The operator of the one-of-a-kind giant aircraft is the Ukrainian airline AntonovAirlines.

History of creation

The need to construct a transport jet aircraft of enormous scale arose in connection with the maintenance of the Buran spacecraft. The functions of such an aircraft included transporting individual heavy elements of the spacecraft and launch vehicle from the place of its assembly to the launch site. The fact is that rockets and spaceships are launched mainly in the equator region, where the value of the Earth’s magnetic field is minimal, and, accordingly, the risks of accidents during takeoff are reduced.

Also, the An-225 was tasked with carrying out the first stage of the air launch of a spacecraft, and for this its payload must be at least 250 tons.

Since the dimensions of the Buran and the launch vehicle exceeded the dimensions of the Mriya’s cargo compartment, external fastenings were adapted to the transport aircraft for transporting cargo from the outside. This specificity led to a change in its tail unit. It was necessary to replace the tail of the aircraft with a double fin to avoid the heavy impact of aerodynamic currents.

All this suggests that the An-225 was designed as a highly specialized heavy transport aircraft, but some features that were taken from the An-124 made it universal in its qualities.

Many sources mistakenly call P.V. Balabuev the chief designer of the An-225, but this is not so. Balabuev was the chief designer of the entire Antonov Design Bureau in 1984-2005, but V.I. Tolmachev was appointed head of the An-225 project.

Cooperation ties during the creation of Mriya

Since 1985, the leadership of the CPSU Central Committee has outlined a short time frame for the development of the An-225. Therefore, during the design and creation of the transport heavyweight, hundreds of thousands of designers, scientists, engineers, technologists, pilots, military personnel and workers from all republics of the former USSR were involved.

Let's consider the work of individual enterprises to create the An-225

• "OKB im. Antonov" (Kyiv) – main design work. Production of most of the components, fuselage parts, fairings and fairings, nose section, etc. Assembly: fuselage and overall assembly of the aircraft.
• “Tashkent Aircraft Production Association named after. Chkalov" – production of central and end parts of wings based on the An-124.
• "Ulyanovsk Aviation Industrial Complex" - production of large-sized milled power frames, fuselage brackets, some serial components and aircraft parts.
• "Kiev Aircraft Production Association" - production of the nose of the fuselage, nose and horizontal tail, front landing gear, ball screw mechanisms for the fuselage struts.
• "Moscow Institute of Automation and Electromechanics" - design and production of the A-825M aircraft control complex.
• "Zaporozhye Engine Plant" - production of serial D-18 engines.
• "Gidromash" (Nizhny Novgorod) - production of new chassis.
• "Voronezh Aviation Plant". Specialists were painting the aircraft in Kyiv.

Capabilities of the An-225 aircraft

• Transportation of general purpose cargo (heavy, large, long) with a total weight of up to 250 tons.
• Inland non-stop transportation of cargo with a total weight of 180-200 tons.
• Intercontinental transportation of goods up to 150 tons.
• Transportation of external monocargoes attached to the fuselage with a weight of up to 200 tons.
• "Mriya" is a promising base for the design of aerospace systems.

Let's look at the volume of the fuselage cargo compartment using examples.

• Passenger cars (50 pcs.).
• Universal aviation containers UAK-10 (16 pcs.).
• Large monocargoes with a total weight of up to 200 tons (generators, turbines, dump trucks, etc.)

Exploitation

The first flight of the Mriya dates back to December 21, 1988.

The aircraft was created to transport the Buran spacecraft and Energia launch vehicles. However, before the completion of work on its release, the launch vehicles had already been transported by the Atlant aircraft, and the An-225 was only involved in moving the Buran itself. In May 1989 it was presented at the Paris Air Show and conducted several demonstration flights over Baikonur in April 1991.

After the collapse of the USSR, in 1994, the only unit of the Mriya stopped flying. The engines and some other pieces of equipment were removed from it and installed on the Ruslans. But by the beginning of 2000, it became clear that the need for a working An-225 was very great, so they tried to restore it at Ukrainian enterprises. In order to fit the aircraft to modern civil aviation certificates, minor modifications were also required.

On May 23, 2001, the An-225 Mriya received certificates from the International Aviation Committee and the State Department of Aviation Transport of Ukraine. They made it possible to carry out commercial activities involving the transportation of goods.

Currently, the owner of the only copy of the An-225 is Antonov Airlines, which carries out commercial cargo transportation as part of a subsidiary of ANTK named after. Antonov.

On the basis of the aircraft, a flying complex is being designed for the launch of various aviation and space systems. One of the promising projects in this direction is MAKS (Ukrainian-Russian multi-purpose aerospace system).

Records

During its short existence, the An-225 set hundreds of aviation records.

The An-225 Mriya is the heaviest lifting aircraft that has ever taken to the air. The wingspan is second only to the HuglesH-Herkules, which made only one flight in 1974.

The An-225 set especially many records in terms of carrying capacity. Thus, on March 22, 1989, lifting a cargo with a total weight of 156.3 tons into the sky, he broke 110 world aviation records. But this is not the limit of his capabilities. August 2004 - the Mriya aircraft transports cargo consisting of Zeromax equipment in the direction Prague - Tashkent with refueling in Samara, with a total weight of 250 tons.

Five years later, in August 2009, the name of the Ukrainian aircraft once again entered the Guinness Book of Records, this time for transporting the heaviest monocargo in the cargo compartment. It turned out to be a generator that weighed 187.6 tons together with the auxiliary unit. The cargo was sent from the German city of Frankfurt to Yerevan at the request of one of the Armenian power plants.

The absolute record for carrying capacity of 253.8 tons belongs to the An-225 Mriya.

10.06. In 2010, this aircraft transported the longest cargo in the history of air transportation - two blades of a screw windmill, each 42.1 m in length.

If we sum up all the Mriya’s world records, there are over 250 of them.

Second copy of "Mriya"

The second An-225 is currently only 70% complete. Its assembly began during the Soviet Union at the aircraft plant named after. Antonov. According to the plant management, when a customer appears, it will be able to be brought to operational flight readiness.

Based on the statement of the general director of the Kyiv Aviant Oleg Shevchenko, about $90-100 million of investment is now required to lift the second copy of the An-225 into the air. And if we also take into account the amount required for flight testing, the total cost could rise to $120 million.

As you know, the development of this aircraft is based on the An-124 Ruslan. The main differences between the AN-225 and the An-124 aircraft are as follows:

two additional engines,

increase in fuselage length as a result of inserts,

new center section,

replacement of the tail unit,

no tail cargo hatch,

external cargo fastening and pressurization system,

increasing the number of main landing gear struts.

As for other characteristics, the An-225 Mriya almost completely corresponds to the An-124, which significantly facilitated and reduced the cost of developing a new model and its use.

Purpose of An-225 "Mriya"

The reason for the development and creation of the An-225 was the need for an aviation transport platform designed for the Buran spacecraft. As is known, the main purpose of the aircraft within the project was to transport the space shuttle and its components from the production site to the launch site. In addition, the task was set to return the Buran spacecraft to the cosmodrome if it was suddenly forced to land at alternate airfields.

The An-225 aircraft was also supposed to be used as the first stage of the space shuttle air launch system. That is why the aircraft had to withstand a load capacity of more than 250 tons. Since the Energia carrier blocks and the Buran spacecraft itself had dimensions that were slightly larger than the dimensions of the aircraft’s cargo compartment, external cargo fastening was provided on it. This, in turn, required the replacement of the aircraft's basic tail unit with a two-fin one, which avoided aerodynamic shading.

As you can see, the aircraft was created to perform a few specialized transport tasks that were very responsible. However, its construction on the basis of the An-124 Ruslan endowed the new aircraft with many of the qualities of a transport aircraft.

An-225 has the ability to:

transportation of general purpose cargo (large, long, heavy), the total weight of which is up to 250 tons;

intracontinental transportation of cargo weighing 180-200 tons without landing;

intercontinental transportation of goods, the total weight of which is up to 150 tons;

transportation of heavy monocargoes with a total weight of up to 200 tons and large dimensions.

The An-225 is the first step in the creation of an aerospace project.

The model features a spacious and roomy cargo compartment, making it possible to transport a wide variety of cargo.

For example, it can be translated:

fifty cars;

monocargoes with a total weight of up to 200 tons (dump trucks, turbines, generators);

sixteen ten-ton UAK-10, which are universal aviation containers.

Cargo compartment parameters: 6.4 m – width, 43 m – length, 4.4 m – height. The cargo compartment of the An-225 is sealed, which expands its capabilities. Above the cargo compartment there is a room intended for a replacement crew of 6 people and for 88 people who can accompany the transported cargo. Moreover, all control systems have quadruple redundancy. The design of the front cargo hatch and on-board equipment allow loading/unloading cargo as conveniently and quickly as possible. The aircraft can carry large cargo on the fuselage. The dimensions of these cargoes do not allow them to be transported using other land or air vehicles. A special fastening system ensures that these cargoes are securely located on the fuselage.

Flight characteristics of An-225

800-850 km/h - cruising speed

1500 km - flight distance with maximum fuel reserve

4500 km - flight range with a load of 200 tons

7000 km - flight range with a load of 150 tons

3-3.5 thousand m - required runway length

Dimensions

88.4 m - wingspan

84 m - aircraft length

18.1 m - height

905 sq. m - wing area

Today, the An-225 Mriya is the largest aircraft in the world, as well as the most load-carrying. Moreover, the giant set a large number of world records, many of them in terms of carrying capacity, take-off weight, length of cargo, etc.

Possible competition

The president of Antonov Airlines claims that launching satellite satellites from the An-225 will cost much less than using the cosmodrome infrastructure. Moreover, the aircraft will not compete with the Polet project, which involves launching from Ruslan. All this is because the Polet project has planned the launch of so-called light satellites, weighing up to 3.5 tons. But with the An-225 it is possible to produce medium-type structures weighing up to 5.5 tons.

Well, as for the updated projects of the West, we are talking about the Airbus A3XX-100F aircraft and the Boeing 747-X aircraft model, their carrying capacity is no more than 150 tons, and they are beginning to compete with the An-225. Moreover, they have quite a lot of chances to win.

The last modernization of the An-225 aircraft took place in 2000, as a result of which it received navigation equipment that meets international standards.

An-225 "Mriya"

An-225 "Mriya" is the largest aircraft in the world, Ukrainian development of the Design Bureau named after. Antonov. The An-225 was included in the Guinness Book of Records for transporting the largest cargo in the history of aviation. The aircraft's carrying capacity is up to 250 tons! Currently, cargo transportation is carried out by only one An-225 aircraft, which is operated by the Ukrainian airline Antonov Airlines. So that you can imagine the true size of the giant, the unique Ukrainian aircraft can transport about 50 cars at a time.

Hughes H-4 Hercules

"Hercules" is an American-made flying boat; the first and only flight of the Hugbes H-4 was made back in 1947. Then the plane rose into the air to a height of 21 meters and flew over Los Angeles Harbor for about 2 kilometers. Subsequently, the project was frozen as unnecessary. Currently, the Hughes aircraft is an exhibit at the Evergreen International Aviation Museum, visited by 300 thousand tourists annually. The Hughes H-4 Hercules is the record holder for the wingspan of an aircraft - the Hercules has a wingspan of 98 meters, for your information, the An-225 has a wingspan of only 88 meters.

Super Guppy

Aero Spacelines Super Guppy is a transport aircraft based on the fuselage of the military Boeing C-97. The first flight of the unusual aircraft took place in 1965; one of the “Super Guppies” still serves for NASA. Super Guppy was also used by aviation giant Airbus to deliver large aircraft parts to final assembly sites. Subsequently, Airbus developed a new Beluga transport aircraft to replace the Guppy, which will be discussed a little later.

The aircraft's carrying capacity is almost 25 tons (10 times less than that of the An-225 Mriya), and its wingspan is 47.6 meters.

Airbus Beluga

Beluga replaced the Super Guppy, which could not cope with the increasing volumes of supplies of parts for aircraft. The base model for Airbus Beluga was the A300-600 fuselage. The Beluga's carrying capacity is approximately 47 tons, which allows Airbus to transport a pair of assembled Airbus A330 wings or most parts of the Airbus A319 airframe at a time. Airbus is currently working on developing a new transport aircraft based on the A340 that will transport A380 components.

Boeing 747 Dreamlifter

Dreamlifter got its name from the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. The Boeing 747 Dreamlifter transport was developed by the Boeing concern specifically for transporting Dreamliner components. The 787 Dreamliner carrier began operating in 2007. The maximum lifting capacity of the Boeing Dreamlifter is about 180 tons.

Airbus A380

The A380 is the largest passenger aircraft in aviation history. I am sure that Airbus will hold the palm for a very long time, because Boeing is not interested in creating giant passenger airliners. Before the A380, the largest passenger aircraft was the Boeing 747 for 36 years. The Airbus A380 is capable of carrying up to 853 passengers in a single-class configuration; the wingspan of the largest passenger aircraft is 79 meters. At the beginning of 2011, Emirates, Lufthansa, Korean Air, Singapore Airlines, Qantas, Air France and China Southern Airlines operated 60 giant Airbus A380s.

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