It’s a plane that would have never been built today, it burns up to 20 tonnes of fuel an hour and it’s too large for a 1/3rd of the world’s airports. But this cold war relic was built to do what no other aircraft could, the Antonov an225 was going to lift enormous components for the Soviet space program and even launch spacecraft into orbit by using it as an air-launch platform. The Soviet Union had big plans for the plane, but by the time they unveiled it to the world in the 1989 Paris air show, it was a plane built for a future that would never exist.
In 1982, the Soviet Union begins airlifting components of a new space launch system. They strapped enormous parts to the back of aircraft and flew them thousands of kilometers across the country. They were racing to build the counterpart to the American space shuttle, a rival spacecraft and launch system called the Energia Buran. Like earlier Soviet spaceplane its been built in the aerospace manufacturing facilities in the western Soviet Union (present-day Ukraine) and they would be launched thousands of kilometers away from the southern part of the Soviet Union (present-day Kazakhstan) and unlike earlier spacecraft, Energia Buran’s components were too large to transported over railways so they will have to be airlifted. In a rush, the Soviets converted 1950s era bombers to do the job, but the planes weren’t up-to-the task as they could only lift smaller components and even those had to be stripped down to make them as light as possible. To carry fully assembled components, some of which were over 60FT long, the Soviets were going to need a much bigger plane.
The Americans solved their need to transport space shuttles by converting Boing 747s into shuttle carriers, the jumbo jet was an ideal plane for the job. Large and powerful, they were modified by reducing weight, strengthening the fuselage, and adding additional stabilizers.
Unlike the Soviets, the Americans would also use rail lines and the largest components would be transported over water using barges, only the shuttle carrier would need airlifting. The Soviets would need to airlift their entire launch system including giant rocket boosters and core stages. With Soviet leadership pressing to start launches in 1988, engineers had little time to come up with the solution. So, they looked towards the largest plane the Soviet Union had to offer. Under development in the early 1980s, the Antonov 124 would enter service as the largest and the most capable transport in the world, and just in time for the Energia Buran’s launch. But even the enormous 124 wasn’t going to cut it, engineers would have to make the plane even larger. To do that they lengthened the fuselage and added root extensions to increase the wingspan. For more power, they would give the plane two more engines bring the total to 6. With a strengthened fuselage the new plane could easily carry the Buran Orbiter, but larger components would obstruct the tail, so engineers redesigned the vertical stabilizers. To deal with the new plane’s immense weight and to prevent it from damaging runways they would give it a brand-new landing gear that would distribute its enormous weight over 32 wheels. Larger and more capable this new Titan of the skies will be designated the AN-225.
TheAntonov an225 is unlike any other plane in the world. Its 6 turbofans put out 309,000 pounds of thrust giving it the ability to lift nearly double the payload of the Boeing 747. The Antonov an225’s primary mission would be to carry Energia Buran components but designers also envisioned using the plane to do something that had never been done before. It would launch spacecraft into orbit directly from mid-air, that was because the 225 was powerful enough to fly a fully fuelled space plane and its payload almost to the lower stratosphere where it would then launch at an altitude of 8 km allowing it to reach orbit at one-tenth the cost of launching from the ground. The reusable launch system would complement the Energia Buran and its development was well underway by 1988. The Soviet Union planned to build several AN-225s to serve as the backbone of their space program for decades to come.
In November of 1988, the Soviet Union stunned the world with the first unmanned launch of the Buran. Up until that point, only a few in North America had any idea that the Soviet Union had developed their version of the American space shuttle by NASA. In the following year, the Soviets gave western audiences a first-hand look at the spacecraft as the enormous Antonov an225 carried a Buran to the Paris Air show. The monstrous plane drew a lot of crowds, but experts were puzzled because to get to the air show the Soviets would have had to fly the Antonov an225 and the space shuttle through a rainstorm, a move NASA would have considered reckless with their space shuttle. But at this point damaging the Buran was the least of the Soviet union’s concerns because by 1989 the country was going bankrupt and could no longer afford to run the space program. Which meant the spacecraft would never launch again, and without the need to airlift orbiters, core stages, and boosters the Antonov an225 was paraded around the world at western air shows while the soviets struggled to find an alternative use for the giant plane. It seemed like nothing was off the table, from working with the British to launch their spacecraft by using the Antonov an225 as a launch platform to converting it into a massive triple-decker airliner, but none of these plans ever materialized, because in 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed. Before long the Antonov an225 was sent into storage outside of Kyiv in Ukraine where it was scavenged for parts, the world’s largest plane now seemed destined for the scrap yard.
With the fall of the Soviet Union, Ukraine’s Antonov design bureau struggled to find customers for their aircraft but they did find a new source of revenue chattering out their existing fleet to fly cargo. With the AN-124 having more lifting power than any aircraft in the world, they found a brisk business transporting things like massive generators to even locomotives, but every so often they would get a request to fly a cargo that even the 124 couldn’t manage. By the late 90s, the case for resurrecting the Antonov an225 was building, but it wasn’t a straightforward decision. Unlike the relatively smaller 124 which was purpose-built for cargo, the 225 was a relic of a plane built solely for one purpose which was to carry space orbiter components. It had a fuselage heavily reinforced to handle external payloads. And unlike the 124 the plane didn’t have a rear cargo door which would slow down the process of loading cargo. But Antonov bet that the plane could fill a niche, and after years of being left in storage, 20 million dollars were invested into getting new engines, modernized avionics, and a new strengthened cargo hull. On its first chartered flight in January of 2002, the 225 carried a payload of 187 tonnes, a feat that previously required 2 Boeing 747 freighter aircraft. The world’s largest plane would be given a new lease of life carrying cargo that would otherwise be impossible to fly. Over the next two decades the 225 set new world records for the heaviest and largest payloads ever carried, but the plane’s outsized capabilities came with outsized costs. At upwards of 30000 dollars an hour to operate, the 225 only flies when no other plane can do the job. With only one of the type ever produced the giant plane remains in a class of its own drawing crowds wherever it flies. A second half-finished 225 has sat in storage for more than 30 years, despite regular headlines of how it one day might be completed it’s not certain if there will ever be a need for another spacecraft transporter turned cargo plane.
The Antonov an225 was built in an era when technological advantages whether in space or the air were to be achieved no matter the cost. The Antonov an225 remains to be, the largest aircraft ever built.
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