Antonov AN-225, The Biggest and Heaviest Airplane in the World

Antonov AN-225, The Biggest and Heaviest Airplane in the World

AN-225 MRIYA (NATO codename: “Cossacks”) is the largest and heaviest airplane in the world. Myria come from The Russian word incidentally means ‘inspired dream’  it is classed as a Strategic Air-lifter and was constructed by the Antonov Design Bureau in the Ukraine in 1988 as a derivative from the Antanov An124.

His job as an aircraft carrier for russian Shuttle Buran, but is also used as an ordinary cargo aircraft. Unlike any other commercially available aircraft, the An-225 has the ability to carry external loads of up to 90 tonnes mounted on its “roof rack” also.

The AN-225 is very big. It takes up more than 2 Boeing 747 parking spaces. There is enough cargo space to load 5 tanks, the complete assembled fuselage of a Boeing 737, or 8 double-decker buses. It can carry up to 1500 people at a time. With a maximum gross weight of 640 tonnes, the An-225 is the world’s heaviest aircraft. A size comparison between it and four of the world’s other largest airplanes is as follow :

Read more