The Antonov 225

                                 THE ANTONOV 225

It weighs about 1 million pounds. It is powered by 6 engines which in total of 300,000 pounds of thrust. The man in charge of test flying the aircraft doubted it would fly. it’s so large that the wrights brothers first airplane test flight could have taken place in its cargo bay.

Having a wing span of 290feets (8,839.2cm).

Diameter of the fuselage; 63feets (1,920.24cm).

Seven story buildings high.

It’s so massive that it requires   2   heavy duty tractors to pull to the runway. It’s the largest jetliner in the world, known as the heavy weight champion of the sky. A jet that manages to squeeze itself between the goal posts in a football field. When it comes to weight lifting, they have a class of their own. Its junior brother the An-124 packs a total of 150tonnes of heavy weight lifting, also having the capability of carrying external load of its roof in total of 250tonnes in weight. Its belly is so intense, 8 average family houses can be stacked inside it, left with only one in existence today, this unique invention has a story of creation, history, desolation and re-births to tell.

                                                                      CREATION.

It evolved out of the competition between Russia and USA for space. Built in 1988 to carry the soviet space shuttle , a 119feets long shuttle  was nestled comfortably on its top ready for launch, unfortunately the soviet union became history in 1990.

The space mission was aborted and it degraded to the largest junk pile in the world.

Lets take a deep dive into the world of aviation history.

                                                    HISTORY.

The originator started his job when aviation science was still in its infancy. Oleg Constain Tinovich Antonov, born February 7 1906 just 3 years after the Wright Brothers  made first flight at KITFOX  USA. He usually collected world war 1 airplane parts. His fascination with flight led him to build his own first glider, 1917 April  23 was when he built his first flying machine , though which weren’t  successful  but within 15 years  he built many successive gliders which made some soviet and world records. He graduated from an institute in Ukraine where he learnt his trade in 1930. He worked as a chief design engineer at many soviet factories developing more than 30 types of gliders, very talented and special engineer in aerodynamics. During Second World War he was deputy chief designer for MR YANKE OLEIF. During his free time he used to design constructions of his own one of which was the Antonov 2 bi-plane.  This plane led him to his heavy duty cargo jets made today. His project was supported by Mr. YANKE OLIEF and Federal Ministry of Aviation Ukraine. His First prototype was built in Kiev factory and flew in 1946, It was good and successful and the government decided to start large scale production with him, 1800 of these were built and many still perform their jobs today. He already got a status in the USSR and fulfilled almost all the needs of the Soviet Union. His office and the vintage preserved tools all speak about his role in soviet aviation. It was because of him that Ukraine was known to consistently produce the largest aircraft in the world. The Antonov 22 was the first wide bodied aircraft developed in Ukraine in 1965. It’s the largest turbo-prop aircraft in the world, approximately 100 of it were produced then the Antonov 124 developed in the mid-70s for its strategic lifting of air loads for the soviet military to transport missiles and amour tanks. 244feets wing span. 247feets in length, over 60 were built. It was Antonov who initially started the design but there were some conflicts within the government about its design but Antonov prevailed, thicker wings provided more lift and larger fuel capacity than its predecessors, it has nose and tail cargo doors allowing trucks to drive in through one door and exit at the other. It has the ability to kneel down making it easier for frontal loading and its own internal crane to transport cargo to the desired places. It even has the ability to land on primitive runways. In 1984 Antonov died at age 78 when mass production of An – 124 started. The need to transport Boron a space shuttle into space with a vehicle led the government to give the engineers in the mid- 80s 10 years later to initiate the completion of An-225, designers started in 1985 on a tight budget. It’s a modification of An-124, a lot of similarity cross-section and wing panel and engines which are identical but 6 on the An-225, change in tail design. It has a total of 32 tires, 7 on each side to compensate the weight of boron. No tail door, only to be constructed in 3 1/2 years, the engineers didn’t find a place large enough to build the jet, it didn’t fit into any of the existing facilities, firstly the fuselage was built in parts and was stored at angles to be assembled in the shop; the building of the jet was so fast it was built rapidly than the building they were building it in. Problems encountered were; brake problems with the landing gears; solution, to make the tires soft in order n0t to break the runway. Major problem encountered was because during that time there were no cranes that could lift BORON to its back, solution a special lift was built to raise it 60fts high in the air to be able to install it on An-225’s back and meet the deadline. 600 tones weight of behemoth takeoff and land each flight.