Antonov An-225 Mriya
December 21st, 2022
34 years ago, today, December 24th 1988, the largest airplane in the world first flew in the Soviet Union. The An-225 was the largest airplane in the world and was powered by six Ivchenko Progress Lotarev D-18T engines which was the basically the Warsaw Pact version of the Rolls-Royce Trent 500, the engine used on the Airbus A340. The An-225 was designed to transport Warsaw Pact space equipment and transported the Buran-class (Russian for Snowstorm or Blizzard) space shuttles. A quick reference on names is that Mriya is Ukrainian for "Dream" and the NATO code name for the aircraft was "Cassock". The An-225 was destroyed at the Kyiv Airport in Kyiv, Ukraine in February 2022 by Russian forces during the Russo-Ukrainian War.
The Soviet Union ordered the An-225 to transport the Buran-class space shuttles and the components of it. Unfortunately for the Soviets, the Buran program only finished building one orbiter, named Buran, which launched only once. After the launch it was stored for several years at an amusement park in Moscow. The aircraft was used for decades to transport supplies by both the Soviet Union and, after the fall of the Soviet Union, Ukraine.
After the fall of the Soviet Union, Ukraine operated the aircraft from 1991 to February 2022. The aircraft was used by Antonov Airlines to transport aircraft, tanks, helicopters, supplies after hurricanes, cyclones, etc., and many other operations. Antonov only built one aircraft and started building a second one in the late 1990s, but by 2010 with the aircraft completed as seen in the picture, work was halted until May 20th 2022 shortly after the first one was destroyed. On February 24th, 2022 during the Battle of Antonov Airport during the Russo-Ukrainian War, the An-225 was destroyed at Kyiv Airport (see picture below). The current status on the second aircraft is that it is being completed at a "top secret" factory somewhere in Germany.
