As the world sees horrific images of wartime death in Ukraine, there’s a material loss of another kind in the aviation world to report.
Though it pales in comparison to human suffering, the one-and-only Antonov An-225 six-engine jet transport, the largest regularly flying aircraft in the world, was destroyed on the ground in its open-ended hangar in Ukraine as part of the Russian invasion, according to Ukrainian sources.
News imagery shows the heavily damaged An-225 airframe at Antonov Airport in Hostomel, a suburb of Kyiv.
Ukrainian officials have said the giant transport succumbed to a Russian airstrike. Some early reports coming out of Ukraine included promises that the An-225 would be rebuilt.
The An-225 is called Mriya, which is Ukrainian for Dream or Inspiration.
Originally built in 1988 to transport the Soviet Union’s nascent Buran space shuttle lookalike, the An-225 was placed in storage for eight years beginning in 1994 in the now-independent Ukraine before returning to service as a commercial cargo transport.
The An-225 had a wingspan of 290 feet. Howard Hughes’ famed wooden Hercules, known as the Spruce Goose, spans nearly 321 feet. But weight favors the Antonov, and its routine use as a revenue-generating transport versus the Spruce Goose’s one-time-only flight established a number of qualified largest-airplane bona fides for Mriya.
Modifications gave the An-225 a maximum gross weight of 710 tons. Mriya made a name for itself carrying outsized cargo like huge 150-ton generators.
Another role was the transport of large amounts of emergency medical supplies in response to disasters. As part of a NATO-contracted strategic airlift, the An-225 carried 10 million COVID-19 masks to Germany on one flight in April 2020.
Built as a limited-use carrier for the Soviet space program, the An-225 Mriya went on to become a symbol of the post-Soviet world as independent Ukraine put the giant to work repeatedly until war destroyed it on the ground this year.
Putin messes up yet again ! – shot in his own foot……..
Are there any pictures of the airplane in its current state?
There’s a YouTube video of a Russian reporter with the plane and the hangar in the background. Wings are ripped off and the fuselage is a mess.
Yes, there is a Ukrainian news video.
https://news.yahoo.com/video-shows-charred-wreck-worlds-123528554.html
There are numerous stories out with photos since Russian television aired its coverage. Very sad, as this plane helped many with deliveries of medical assistance.
I met the crew in the early 90’s covering a story as a radio program’s co-producer. At that time they were picking up diagnostic equipment and other medical supplies for the children of Chernobyl, suffering with cancer, thyroid disease, and other ailments from the fallout. Shortly after the accident, children of the nearby town were paraded around the streets to prove the nuclear disaster was not harmful. At that time, they were purposely not given thyroid medication, which would stave off some of the radiation effects, as much is accumulated through the thyroid.