Aircraft AN 225 appeared thanks to ... missiles. The fact is that the beginning of the use of heavy launch vehicles entailed the need to create an aircraft that could quickly transport massive and very heavy parts over long distances. So, in just 3.5 years, AN 225 was created, in which the number "225" meant the number of tons that this aircraft could lift. Today it is the largest aircraft on the planet with the highest payload.
Work on the giant plane began in the USSR at the Antonov Design Bureau. The development was led by designer Balabuev. Under his leadership, the company successfully dealt with the creation of a universal type transport aircraft that would carry various cargoes inside and outside the fuselage. In addition, it was assumed that the AN 225 could be the first step for spacecraft starting in the air.
The An 225 airplane, whose characteristics are most likely to allow such missions, has very impressive parameters. The aircraft is 84 meters long, its wingspan is close to 90 meters (one side of the football field), the vehicle has a maximum speed of 850 km per hour, can climb 9 km and fly 2.5 thousand kilometers with a maximum load of 250 tons . He has a huge cargo compartment with a height of 4.4 meters, a length of 43 meters and a width of about 6.4 meters, which easily fit more than 70 cars and models such as Belaz or Komatsu. For this giant to turn around, you need a strip of at least 60 meters wide.
If you look at the appearance of the AN 225, you can see that the aircraft is the owner of a twin-tail plumage, a vertical type. It is part of a constructive system that, along with seven two-wheeled racks on each side and wingspan, allows you to carry “on the back” loads of increased length (up to 70 meters). In the USSR, with its help, it was planned, among other things, to launch complexes allowing the cargo to be put into low Earth orbit, as well as to be used in conjunction with the Orlenok class ekranoplan for rescue operations at sea.
The first tests of the aircraft took place in the USSR in 1989. After that, the flight path of this instance of AN 225 did not work out due to the collapse of the country, equipment was removed from it and it stands at an airfield in a suburb of Kiev. In Ukraine, at the beginning of the 21st century, a second instance of an aircraft was created, which is in operation today. With its help, in 2009 a generator for a hydroelectric power station was delivered to Armenia, in 2011 Japan received a humanitarian aid load , and in 2012 units for another hydropower station were delivered to Tajikistan. In 2014-2015, it is planned to release another instance of such a machine, which has no equal in the world. The closest competitors of Mriy, Airbus and Boeing, have a carrying capacity of not more than 150 tons, which makes them unable to carry heavy and bulky cargo.
Creating aircraft of this class is an extremely expensive operation, and you can rent it only for a very large sum of money, which depends on the type of cargo transported. It is believed that the flight hour of this aircraft exceeds the cost of the flight hour of the Ruslan aircraft, which has a lower carrying capacity. At the same time, renting the last aircraft costs about $ 25,000 per hour.