Jump to content

That BIG white Antonov.........


Radleigh

Recommended Posts

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just saw your pics on Flickr! That is one amazing beast of an aircraft. Worth that trip to see it in my opinion, not very often one gets to see one.

Would love to hear what it was contracted to carry.

How many are operable at the moment?

Martin

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wow! Fantastic to see this, great photos.

Lightningboy - I'm pretty sure this is the only AN-225 in existence.

There is a second one languishing at Gostomel, Kiev.

It is the static test airframe and there was talk a few years ago of Antonov finding the funds to refurbish it - but nothing has happened so far.

So, currently, there is only one flying.

With a payload of 250 tonnes it is certainly some beast.

During testing with various payloads to different heights for record purposes, they loaded pallets of metal ingots off and one to set the various weights.

Then someone realised that this was rather labour-intensive and came up with the idea of self-loading weights - in the form of tanks :analintruder:

There is a great photo showing the An-225 parked with its visor open and the ramp down and FIVE 50-tonne T-72/T-80 tanks arrayed in front of it.

See here.

I can't wait for the Modelsvit 1/72 scale kit of it to do that diorama - I've already stocked up on the tanks!

Ken.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There is a second one languishing at Gostomel, Kiev.

It is the static test airframe and there was talk a few years ago of Antonov finding the funds to refurbish it - but nothing has happened so far.

Ken.

Always good to learn more, quite fantastic to think humans made this crazy thing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks guys,

Sorry I've only just seen this... It left around 10:45ish this morning, was here for a refuel stop over and now routing to Toulouse...

Last time I saw it was in Paris a few years back when it was in the white scheme red stripe.. Will post a photo later I'm on the iPad at the moment.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One day I will get to see the AN-225 for real..............great photos.

Chris

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I saw the Mriya flying around Houston back in 2004. At that time, it was being used to do hauling for NASA (shuttle and/or rocket parts, I believe), which has a base a Ellington Field, an old U.S. Air Force base south of Houston and next to the Johnson Space Center [sic]. It was flying from Ellington up to Bush/Intercontinental in the north of Houston. Absolutely amazing to see something that massive hanging in the air. Great photographs, everyone, and thank you for sharing!

Regards,

Jason

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great shots Rad, as mentioned quite a beast. I remember seeing it at Farnborough all those years ago and amazed at just how agile it was, (admittedly unloaded). The thing that struck me though was seeing the amount of vibration on that huge tailplane when holding at the end of the runway under full power....even though it's so well designed it still looked like it was going to shake itself to pieces !

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Superb shots, very jealous I've been waiting to see the 225 for a long time now, i've still not got a landing shot of the 124. i debated travelling to East Midlands to see her leave but i chose to camp out at Fairford for the B2's instead, not a bad alternative.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...