The Largest Airplane Ever Made - Antonov AN-225 'MRIYA' - Giant in the Skies captured on the Ground

The giant in the skies > Antonov's AN225 Mriya - Ukrainian for 'dream'. There's many details around this unique aircraft but let'st just put it this way: it can carry 50 cars! It has a fuel capacity of 300 tonnes and a max takeoff weight of over 1.000 tonnes.

Here it is next to a 747:

I was lucky enough to see this amazing piece of kit in real life and took some pictures to capture its awesome presence...

It features 6 Ivchenko Progress D-18T turbofan engines.

Designed and built by Antonov Design Bureau in Odessa, Ukraine during the cold war. It is the only aircraft built so one of one if you like. Design was started in the early 80s but first test flights did not happen until 1988. The original mission was to carry the Soviet Space Program's shuttle - probably the only cargo it actually never carried.

Cargo is loaded through the front, the entire nose section lifts up. It holds more than 240 world records among them the heaviest cargo ever airlifted, the largest single piece of cargo ever air lifted and the longest cargo ever air lifted. The heaviest piece lifted weighed just under 190 tonnes.

It is a beautifully drawn (no CAD in the early 80s) and built machine - check out that line flow and all those rivets!

Here is an amazing shot of Myria in the foreground with a few paratroopers doing a landing in the background.

It's landing gear features 32 (!) wheels and two of them upfront as twin nose gear.

The tail dwarfs most aircraft's wings. It is a truly epic and marvelous construction.

Antonov #FTW