Air giant An-225 "Mriya": why was the largest aircraft in the world created and what is it capable of?

Hello dear subscribers and guests of my channel. Today I want to tell you about a unique Soviet aircraft, which does not have and, most likely, will not have analogues in the world. Namely, about an air giant capable of sending spaceships into space - an airplane An-225 Mriya.

An-225 and its fate

For the first time to the general public, the An-225 was shown in 1989 at the Paris Air Show. But even then it was clear to many that this flying giant is more a relic of the past than a representative of the future.

The USSR began to actively transport space rockets by air in 1982. At the same time, the missiles were attached to the upper part of the fuselage of strategic bombers specially modernized for these tasks.

Such a transfer made it possible to move rather bulky units for thousands of kilometers in a short time. From the factories where these parts were produced, to Kazakhstan to the main site of the USSR for launching missiles.

But when Soviet engineers began to develop the Buran spaceplane, it became clear that such half-measures would not work. After all, the shuttle itself, and even more so its carrier rocket, were quite bulky for transportation, both by rail and for modernized bombers. In this case, a significantly larger aircraft was needed.

If you look at overseas colleagues, then NASA used a modernized version for such purposes Boeing-747, which was additionally strengthened fuselage and installed additional tail stabilizers. But the Americans did not need to move large assemblies of space rockets through the air. Since they used railways and ships.

And only the shuttles themselves moved through the air and nothing more. But the Soviet Union did not have such an opportunity, so it was necessary to urgently create an aircraft capable of lifting both accelerators and the central stages of missiles.

Creation of a giant

As usual, the engineers were given a strictly limited time to find a solution. Therefore, it is quite logical that initially the engineers turned their attention to the largest aircraft in the USSR at that time, the famous An-124 Ruslan developed back in the 80s.

Despite its impressive dimensions, the An-124 was still significantly altered. So the decision was made to lengthen the fuselage, enlarge the wings and install an additional pair of engines.

In addition, it was decided to change the tail section of the aircraft to a two-keel one. And install a new chassis consisting of 32 wheels.

Six working engines developed an incredible thrust of 140.5 tons, which made it possible to lift a weight twice the payload of any foreign analogue into the air.

Thus, the resulting giant received the designation An-225 "Mriya". And the main task of the born giant was the transportation of the reusable spacecraft Energia-Buran. But the designers have provided for a fantastic opportunity to this day in launching spacecraft into space with the help of the An-225 aircraft.

So the An-225 was technically capable of lifting a fully equipped launch vehicle with a spacecraft to the stratosphere and launching it. According to calculations, this would reduce the cost of space launches by at least ten times.

According to the plan, several An-225s were to be built, which were supposed to serve the country's space program in the coming decades.

A project that turned out to be of no use to anyone

In 1988, "Buran" made its first, but, as it turned out, the only flight into earth orbit. And next year An-225 flew with "Buran" to the Paris Air Show, where it made a splash.

But by this time, "Buran", like the An-225 itself, was no longer needed by anyone. Perestroika processes began in the country and no one thought about conquering space anymore.

When it became clear that no one would use the Mriya for its intended purpose, they tried to attach the plane to at least some kind of business. So the British studied the possibility of using the An-225 as a launch pad for their space aircraft. There was even an idea to convert the plane into a three-deck airliner. But none of the projects was implemented.

In 1991, the USSR finally collapsed and the An-225 headed to the outskirts of Kiev, where it was dismantled. And everything went to the fact that the giant would never again rise into the sky.

But some time later, on the basis of the Antonov bureau, a company engaged in air cargo transportation was formed. The backbone of the company was the An-124. But occasionally orders were received that even An-124 could not cope with, and therefore, it was decided to revive the Mriya, but it turned out to be a difficult task.

Reincarnation of "Mriya" in a new light

The complexity of the "resurrection" of the An-225 in a new guise was that it was not originally a cargo plane with a rear ramp, which is a huge disadvantage for a transport aircraft. Therefore, a deep modernization was needed, which the company representatives nevertheless decided on and invested $ 20 million in the refurbishment.

So, new engines and completely new avionics were installed in the plane, and the cargo compartment was also strengthened. So during the first working flight, the modernized An-225 took on board 187 tons of payload.

Thus, the resurrected giant An-225 received a new life and in several decades managed to set several world records for carrying capacity. But this uniqueness is very expensive, so just one hour of using "Mriya" costs the customer $ 30,000.

Therefore, this giant is hired only when other planes simply cannot physically complete the task. In this regard, orders are rare and the second An-225, which was assembled by 70%, has been in storage for 30 years now, and it is not known whether it will ever be completed. Therefore, it is very likely that the An-225 will remain the only giant in the sky in its class.

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