World’s largest plane Antonov AN-225 to resume production - TomoNews
- 8 years ago
BEIJING — China and Ukraine have signed an agreement on August 30 to restart the production of the world’s largest plane, the Antonov AN-225.
The giant aircraft has six Progress D-18T engines. It is 59 feet tall, which is roughly as high as a six-story building. It has a wingspan of 290 feet and is 275 feet long. It easily dwarfs Boeing 747 and Airbus A380.
Its cargo hold is 142 feet long and 19.6 feet wide and can carry a variety of cargo with a total weight up to 250 tonnes, such as 50 cars or 16 standard aeronautical containers of UAC-10 type. Other single piece of cargo weighing up to 200 tonnes can be mounted to its external store.
The aircraft was originally built in the 1980s to transport the Soviet Union’s Space Shuttle, Buran. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the financing for the project was terminated and the aircraft has been used as commercial cargo planes since 2001.
The giant aircraft has six Progress D-18T engines. It is 59 feet tall, which is roughly as high as a six-story building. It has a wingspan of 290 feet and is 275 feet long. It easily dwarfs Boeing 747 and Airbus A380.
Its cargo hold is 142 feet long and 19.6 feet wide and can carry a variety of cargo with a total weight up to 250 tonnes, such as 50 cars or 16 standard aeronautical containers of UAC-10 type. Other single piece of cargo weighing up to 200 tonnes can be mounted to its external store.
The aircraft was originally built in the 1980s to transport the Soviet Union’s Space Shuttle, Buran. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the financing for the project was terminated and the aircraft has been used as commercial cargo planes since 2001.