Akfirebug
The Russians have landed....
.....in Fairbanks via the AN-225.....Damn she's big!
Story by dermotcole
02.08.10 - 05:59 pm
The giant Russian plane due to land at Fairbanks International Airport Tuesday morning is the only one its kind flying today. It was designed to carry the Russian version of the space shuttle. While that program was canceled, the AN-225 has carried loads that don't fit in any other aircraft.
The plane is expected to land at about 10 a.m. and depart at midnight, bound for Haiti, by way of Miami. It is flying from Tokyo, the state Department of Transportation said, with 250,000 pounds of earthquake relief equipment.
This is what Popular Mechanics said about the plane in a 2003 article:
There is nothing on Earth or in the air quite like the Antonov An-225. Dwarfing a Boeing 747 and out-lifting a U.S. Air Force C-5A Galaxy, it can haul an expeditionary force into combat, or carry enough food to avert a famine. Yet, oddly, the original purpose of the An-225 was neither hostile nor humanitarian. Conceived in the chilliest years of the Cold War, the plane was designed as an airborne tow truck for the now-defunct Soviet space shuttle program. Despite its lack of armaments, NATO war planners gave the An-225 a military code name, Cossack. History would reveal that the Soviet nickname for the An-225, Mriya, which is Ukrainian for "dream," was more apt.
In keeping with the Soviet penchant for building the world's biggest everything, the An-225 was designed to carry twice as much as a Boeing 747 freighter. The dimensions of the An-225 are staggering--nearly a football field from nose to tail and wingtip to wingtip. With a maximum takeoff weight of about 1.32 million pounds, it is 50 percent heavier than a fully loaded C-5A. To get so massive an aircraft into the sky, Ukrainian engineers equipped the An-225 with six ZMKB Progress Lotarev D-18T turbofan jets, each capable of pumping out 51,590 pounds of thrust.
The Russians have landed....
.....in Fairbanks via the AN-225.....Damn she's big!
Story by dermotcole
02.08.10 - 05:59 pm
The giant Russian plane due to land at Fairbanks International Airport Tuesday morning is the only one its kind flying today. It was designed to carry the Russian version of the space shuttle. While that program was canceled, the AN-225 has carried loads that don't fit in any other aircraft.
The plane is expected to land at about 10 a.m. and depart at midnight, bound for Haiti, by way of Miami. It is flying from Tokyo, the state Department of Transportation said, with 250,000 pounds of earthquake relief equipment.
This is what Popular Mechanics said about the plane in a 2003 article:
There is nothing on Earth or in the air quite like the Antonov An-225. Dwarfing a Boeing 747 and out-lifting a U.S. Air Force C-5A Galaxy, it can haul an expeditionary force into combat, or carry enough food to avert a famine. Yet, oddly, the original purpose of the An-225 was neither hostile nor humanitarian. Conceived in the chilliest years of the Cold War, the plane was designed as an airborne tow truck for the now-defunct Soviet space shuttle program. Despite its lack of armaments, NATO war planners gave the An-225 a military code name, Cossack. History would reveal that the Soviet nickname for the An-225, Mriya, which is Ukrainian for "dream," was more apt.
In keeping with the Soviet penchant for building the world's biggest everything, the An-225 was designed to carry twice as much as a Boeing 747 freighter. The dimensions of the An-225 are staggering--nearly a football field from nose to tail and wingtip to wingtip. With a maximum takeoff weight of about 1.32 million pounds, it is 50 percent heavier than a fully loaded C-5A. To get so massive an aircraft into the sky, Ukrainian engineers equipped the An-225 with six ZMKB Progress Lotarev D-18T turbofan jets, each capable of pumping out 51,590 pounds of thrust.