UKRAINIAN AN-225 'MRIYA,' THE WORLD'S BIGGEST PLANE HISTORY

Big, powerful and fast - recently the Ukrainian Antonov AN-225 "Mriya" ("mriya" means "dream" in Ukrainian) has attracted the attention of aviation fans all over the world.

Last Sunday the Ukrainian plane landed in the city of Perth, Australia. 130-ton generator was brought to the country by the plane and that was first commercial flight of the AN-225 from Ukraine to Australia. In fact, Mriya the world's only aircraft that can carry such large loads.

"Traffic was gridlocked around Perth Airport on Sunday morning as thousands of people lined up against fences, along road verges and on the side of the road in an attempt to get a glimpse of the Ukraine-built Antonov An-225 Mriya," The Age newspaper wrote.

First in the morning of May 10 the plane flew off from Kiev to Prague, where it was loaded with generator and equipment weighing a total of 130 tons. Then AN-225 continued its flight to Australia with technical landings in Turkmenistan, India and Malaysia.

The Antonov 225 Mriya will remain for approximately two days in Perth city and will depart today on May 17.

The Mriya's crew comprises of 21 members. The unloading of the aircraft will take up to 12 hours, and involves a sophisticated system of ramps and cranes to remove the cargo. And when the work will be completed the plane will depart to Germany.

The plane was designed and built at Kyiv mechanical factory under the guidance of aircraft designer Victor Tolmachev. The first flight was held in December 21, in far 1988. The AN-225 was developed by Kyiv engineers to perform a narrow range of transport tasks of that time. In particular the plane was planned to be used for transportation of the "Buran" space shuttle from the production site to the launch site.

The An-225 with Buran atop

In addition, the "Mriya" was also planned to use as a first stage system of air launch spacecraft, which required from the aircraft ability to carry at least 250 tons aboard. 

In sum the AN-225 made 14 flights with Buran onboard, total tim 28 hours 27 minutes.

The "Mriya" had passed through hard times after the Soviet Union collapse. The only working instance of the aircraft in 1994 stopped the flights and his motors and other equipment were dropped for use in "Ruslan" planes.

Later, at the end of 90's the plane was restored and modernized by Ukrainian engineers. Later, at the end of 90's the plane was restored and modernized by Ukrainian engineers and now the AN-225 is a modern turbojet aircraft equiped with six aircraft engines the Progress D-18T Zaporizhzhya, developed by the Ukrainian "Progress" design berueu and  produced by the Zaporizhia's "Motor Sich" enterprise. 

The An-225's widespread - 88 meters; length - 84 meters. The aircraft height - 18.2 meters tall (6-storey building). Empty weight of the aircraft is 250 000 kg. With such an impressive size and weight the Mriya's cruising speed is same as Boeing's - 850 km / h.

10 June 2010 the plane transported the longest cargo in the history of air transports - two windmill blades, length of each was 42.1 meters. In general, the "Mriya" has established about two hundred and fifty world records.