World’s largest aircraft, Ukraine’s Antonov-225, destroyed by Russian forces

As the conflict in the Ukraine continues, the world sits on edge as to what may happen in that part of the world.

The Russian forces have met with stiff resistance from the Ukrainian military and the general citizenry at large.

Details on the Russian invasion of the Ukraine.

The Ukrainian aerospace industry was home to the largest aircraft ever. The Antonov-225, a super heavy lift aircraft, has been flying around the world since 1988 and was built by the Antonov serial production plant.

This amazing aircraft has also been known as the Mriya or “Dream.”

The Antonov-225 is a most amazing aircraft – it holds the record for the highest lift capacity and some other amazing statistics.

With a crew of six, the massive sky giant had a wingspan of 290 feet, a length of 275 feet and 7 inches and a wing area way larger than many homes at 9,740 square feet. Its empty weight is 628,317 pounds.

The aircraft was powered by six Progress D-18T engines generating around 51,000 pounds of thrust each.

You really need to see this aircraft in flight, as it is massive and drew large crowds just
about every time that it would take off and land. Here is a video of the massive Antonov-225 taking off.

Amazing!

It is important that we offer up a size comparison on this aircraft in relation to others of its type and near size. This graphic will help illustrate this further.

The Antonov design bureau is an old company with many great aircraft designs for the then-Soviet Union and the Ukraine.

The company was founded by Oleg Antonov, who was born in 1906. Over his lifetime he helped develop some of the most sophisticated aircraft in the world. To learn more about this great aircraft designer, we offer up this information.

The Antonov-225 also has a place in the history of the Soviet space program.

Just like the American 747, which was used to transport the space shuttle from one location to another, the Soviets had a design to use the Antonov-225 as the transport aircraft for the short-lived Soviet space shuttle, known as the “Buran.”

The Buran looked a lot like the space shuttle but was not even close when it came to the technology we had in ours. The vehicle is explained here>/a>

The massive carrier aircraft and the Buran are seen here.

There is some hope that the Antonov-225 will be rebuilt as this is a significant piece of aviation history.

The Myria is a “Dream” come true and we hope that this dream will live on.

For all information related to the aviation and airshow world, visit our sister website at www.photorecon.net.

To print your own monthly star chart, click here.

To view satellites/dates/times of passage, click here.

Listen to the Dr. Sky Show on KTAR News 92.3 FM every Saturday at 3 a.m.

Podcasts are available here.