The world’s largest-ever aircraft, affectionately named Mriya, has been destroyed in a Russian bombardment on an airfield near Kyiv.
The plane, officially called the Antonov AN225, will be rebuilt once hostilities end, Ukraine said.
“We will rebuild the plane. We will fulfill our dream of a strong, free, and democratic Ukraine,” a tweet from the Ukrainian government’s official Twitter account said. The tweet included a picture of the craft in flight with the caption, “They burned the biggest plane, but our Mriya will never perish.”
The plane, built by Ukrainian aircraft manufacturer Antonov, the AN225 can lift carry 600 tons of people and cargo, compared to the 548 that can be carried by the also massive Airbus A380-800. The aircraft has 32 landing wheels and can carry over 660,000 pounds of fuel, allowing it to fly up to 2,800 miles with a full payload.
In a tweet, the aircraft manufacturer said that the bombed plane has not yet been inspected by experts and thus they cannot yet report on the technical condition of Mriya or give an idea of what it would take to put it back into service.
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4 Responses
It’s a plane
Did some reading on this thing, and it turns out it is a pretty cool machine. What a shame.
I flew on it once, when it was configured for passengers only. The cabin attendants were all taller than 6’6″, and the soft drinks were served in 2-liter bottles.
The U.S. actually chartered this plane for emergency cargo flights to the Middle East during the Iraq era and delivering emergency supplies to natural disasters and Covid relief.