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Mriya, the Dream: World’s Largest Plane Destroyed by Russian Forces in Ukraine
The story of the Mriya, the world’s largest aircraft
For anyone interested in record-breaking machines, especially airplane enthusiasts, the Antonov AN-225 Mriya likely knocks all competition out of the park. It’s the heaviest aircraft ever built in terms of operating empty weight and maximum take-off weight. It’s also the longest from nose to tail. Not surprisingly, wherever this plane landed, it attracted large crowds of plane spotters. Despite its size, and unlike some other big cargo transporters, the Mriya is quite an attractive aircraft. Unlike most others, however, this behemoth has had a checkered and sad history.
It was built in 1985 in the then Soviet Republic of Ukraine for a single purpose: to transport engines and other large components of the Buran orbiter, the Soviet Union’s version of the U.S. space shuttle. The orbiter project was aborted, however, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the Buran was never launched. A few years later, in 1993, the only fully-built Mriya aircraft was officially decommissioned and parked in Kyiv airport.
This decommissioning was temporary. The giant six-engine aircraft was refitted, recertified, and returned to service in the newly independent republic of Ukraine. It was…
