AN-225 Mriya

Russia destroyed the world's largest An-225 Mriya [dream] aircraft, but they will never be able to destroy the Ukrainian dream of a free and democratic European state, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said 27 February 2022. "This was the world's largest aircraft, AN-225 Mriya (Dream in Ukrainian). Russia may have destroyed our Mriya. But they will never be able to destroy our dream of a strong, free and democratic European state. We shall prevail!" Kuleba wrote.

The ANTONOV Company had tweeted on February 26 that �We don�t have accurate information about #AN225 Mriya. Now in Gostomel (it is the region where airfield base @AntonovAirlines) still fighting continues. According to the latest information (24.02.2022) the plane was intact. On February 28, the Ukroboronprom concern reported the destruction of the Mriya at the Gostomel airfield near Kiev. The concern noted that the reconstruction of the machine will require "approximately $ 3 billion and more than five years."

In January 2022, NATO representatives proposed to the leadership of the Ukrainian state enterprise Antonov to relocate its aircraft, including the An-225 Mriya, to Germany, but the company ignored this proposal. "On January 26, NATO countries turned to the leadership of the Antonov state enterprise with a proposal to relocate aircraft from the Gostomel airfield to Leipzig. But Antonov did not respond to this proposal," the pilot said. In his opinion, this could save a unique vehicle that was destroyed during the battle between Russian and Ukrainian forces.

In March, the commander of the Dream crew, Dmitry Antonov , said the company's management could have saved the plane by transferring it to an airport in a neighboring country before the invasion, but did not do so. The accusations were rejected by the Antonov State Enterprise . "The information about the indirect causes of the destruction of the AN-225" Dream "aircraft, which is being disseminated, is based solely on the personal opinions and evaluative judgments of the commander of the" Dream "crew, Dmitry Antonov," they said.

There was only one An-225 aircraft that was nowadays in service. A second An-225 was partly built, but was stored before it was finished. Early 2002 Antonov was working again on this second aircraft to bring it to flying status. It was possible that more aircraft of the type will be built, depending on market demand. The legendary An-124 Ruslan and An-225 Mriya planes improve the image of Ukraine as a state having high technologies and modern production facilities.

On 21 December 2013 a quarter of a century had passed from the maiden flight of the AN-225 Mriya (Dream), the world�s biggest transport designed by ANTONOV Company. It was a legendary and absolutely unique aircraft. The day 07 May 2001 can be considered as the Mriya�s second birth. That day the �second first� take-off of the modernized AN-225 intended for work in the market of commercial cargo transportations was performed. To that time ANTONOV had a number of orders on delivery of cargoes, whose weight and dimensions surpassed the Ruslan�s capabilities. During a month the AN-225 performed 20 test flights having shown quite high reliability and successfully finished the certification program.

The An-225 MRIYA and the certificated An-124-100 are the aircraft of high commonality and standardisation as far as their systems, assemblies, units and parts of airframe, powerplant and equipment are concerned. On May, 26, 2001,the Interstate Aviation Committee Aviation Register (IAC AR) issued Type Certificate to the An-225 MRIYA. On May 26, 2001 when the airplane was shown publicly on the ceremony of opening new RW in Borispol Kiev airport, T.Anodina, the chairman of Aviation Register of Interstate Aviation Committee (AR IAC) handed over the AN-225 Type Certificate to ANTONOV Company.

This way a new chapter in the life of this amazing airplane that works in the Antonov Airlines fleet reliably serving to people has been started. Besides numerous transportations of the unique cargoes the AN-225 repeatedly participated in humanitarian operations on liquidation of consequences of natural disasters in different countries. During last several years it delivered cargoes to Samoa (USA), Japan, Haiti and Philippines.

On the eve of the 2013 jubilee, State Aviation Administration of Ukraine approved the documents to extend the aircraft service and operational time of 20000 flight hours, 4000 flights, 45 years of operation. It means, that AN-225 will be operated till 2033 as minimum. Designers of the AN-225 are sure � there are many glorious affairs wait for this airplane. This aircraft meets the Antonov Airlines� slogan: �No other name carries more weight� in the best way.

The Soviet Union collapsed in December 1991, and as 1992 dawned the An-225 was a Ukrainian product. After collapse of the Soviet Union in December 1991, financing of Energiya-Buran program was terminated and the project stopped. In 1994 Mriya stopped its flights also.

In the 1990s the An-225 was considered as the basis for development of several aerospace systems including Russian project of Molnia Research-and-production enterprise, Svityaz system of Ukrainian Yuzhnoye Design Bureau, air-marine rescue system with Orlenok airfoil boat of Research-and-production enterprise named after R.E.Alekseyev. Design activity to use the aircraft as a flying launch system for future aerospace systems wss conducted. One of the most interesting and promising projects the MAKS joint Russian/Ukrainian multipurpose aerospace system. When used as a space vehicle air launcher, the aircraft would be fitted with the equipment required for prelaunch preparation of aerospace systems. Implementation of these projects will allow considerably reducing the cost of injecting payloads into the space.

In August 1993, the AN-225 took part in Moscow Air Show held in Zhukovskiy town, Moscow region; in December that year the aircraft was displayed at Dubai (UAE). In 1994, Singapore and Sharjha greeted the giant. In April 1994 the AN-225�s flights were stopped.

In the Summer of 2000 the recovery and upgrading works on the AN-225 began. ANTONOV in cooperation with Motor Sich performed those works by their own funds. On May 7, 2001 the upgraded Mriya rose into the sky (crew captain A.Galunenko).

In June 2001, Mriya was displayed at the 44th Le Bourget Air Show (France). Within one flight on September 11, 2001 Mriya�s crew headed by A.Galunenko set 214 national and 124 world records including: airlift of a cargo weighting 253.82 t to the altitude of 2000 m; speed of 763 km/h reached on 1000-km closed route with a cargo of 250 t; airlift of a cargo weighting 250 t to the altitude of 10570 m. Four tanks offered by the Ukraine's Ministry of Defense were used as a commercial cargo on "Mriya" board to fix the record. These records were overshadowed by other events that day.

A silver coin with the Mriya image became the first in �Aircraft of Ukraine� series of coins produced in 2002 by National Bank of Ukraine. At the 3rd Aviasvit-XXI Air Show, on September 18, 2002 ten strongest athletes of Ukraine pulled the AN-225 over several meters. This record was included into the Guinness Records Book.

When the Corps of Engineers' Task Force Restore Iraqi Electricity was formed in September of 2003, the only power produced out of the Bayji site was from three generators at the Thermal plant producing approximately 210 megawatts (MW). RIE's mission was to provide 184 MW of new power generation and place four existing gas turbines on the electrical power grid. Six General Electric TM 2500s were located in Guadalajara, Mexico, and one more in Guyana, Africa. Finally a Vulcan AMPS unit was located in Florida, USA, to complete the search. In order to meet the timeframes required by the Coalition Provisional Authority, Russian Antonov (An-225 Mriya) air freighter was rented for numerous flights to Turkey to deliver the eight mobile units and the other construction materials required. The major materials were delivered to the Bayji site between October 18 and December 17, 2003.

Ukrainian heavy transport airplane An-225 "Mriya" found its place on the pages of the Guinness book of records as the transport vehicle with the longest list of aviation records. According to the Antonov's plant press-service International Aviation Federation (FAI) has registered 6 world records set up by this airplane on June 16, 18 and 19, 2004. Thus, the total number of records fixed by the plane make 240. The representatives of the Antonov press service informed that 240 world records demonstrated by An-224 (with max cargo weight of 640860 kg on its board) had opened the way for "Mriya" to the Guinness book of records.

On June 16, 2004, while carrying a cargo of 247 t on the AN-225 from Prague (Czechia) to Tashkent (Uzbekistan), the crew headed by A.Moiseyev set six world records. In particular, the experts registered the speed records of two S-1 and S-1t transport turbojet planes (with the take off weight exceeding 300 tons) at three air routes confirmed by FAI. The speed of "Mriya" on the Prague-Moscow route was 684,67 km/h, during the flight from Kyiv to Ulyanovsk - 662 km/h and the air distance from Kyiv to Tashkent was covered with the speed of 693,2 km/h.

From November 10-11, 2004 the Mriya carried six agricultural airplanes from Adan (Turkey) to Tripoli (Libya) for combating locust invasion. On October 5, 2005 � AN-225 Mriya delivered a General Electric mobile electric station weighting 145 t from Athens (Greece) to Houston (USA). On December 3, 2005 the Mriya carried 75 thousand boxes with presents for Ukrainian children within a beneficent action "Samaritan's Purse". In 2005 British specialists included the AN-225 Mriya in the list of thirteen the most famous airplanes in the history of aviation. Images of these airplanes were printed on thirteen silver coins produced by British Mint in honour of aviation centenary. Face-value of the coin was 25 Solomon Islands dollars.

At the end of August 2007, the only fully operational AN-225 in the world arrived with a payload of jet engines for Boeing. Designed to carry the Russian space shuttle, the AN-225 has a 290-foot wingspan, a 275-foot-long fuselage, and a maximum gross weight of 1,411,000 pounds. It required special precautions during its arrival, departure, and taxi operations. Before its visit, Airport Operations, Air Traffic Control, and Boeing representatives developed a precise taxi and parking plan.

On August 11, 2009 the AN-225 carried the heaviest in the history of aviation monocargo � generator weighting 174 t, which was transported with a special frame, from Frankfurt (Germany) to Yerevan (Armenia). The total weight of the cargo was 187,6 t. This transportation was included into the Guinness Records Book. In October 2009, the Mriya performed several flights to Samoa and delivered generators needed because the tsunami destroyed the Satala Power plant. Only the AN-225� specious cargo cabin could admit ten 12-thousand kilogramme generators with size of a six-meter container each.

In February 2010, the AN-225 transported the oversized building vehicles (bulldozers, lorries, tractors, loaders) with a total weight of 108 t for elimination of the earthquake consequences on Haiti. On June 10, 2010, the Mriya carried a cargo, which became the longest one in the airlift history. Two wind turbine blades of 42.1 m long each were delivered from China to Denmark. On March 25, 2011, the AN-225 delivered humanitarian cargoes, generators and vehicles with total mass of 140 t to Japan suffered from natural disasters.

In October 2012, the AN-225 delivered equipment manufactured in Kharkiv, �TURBOATOM Corporation� JS, to Dushanbe for Nurek hydropower station. The cargo with total weight of 125 tons consisted of the turbine wheel with mass of 57 tons, a bonnet of the turbine - 36 tons and associated equipment. The AN-225 only could deliver such a cargo to a place of destination for one flight.

Within a period of November 9-12, 2013 the AN-225 Mriya performed transportation of a large Siemens transformer and associated equipment from Zagreb, Croatia, to Cebu, the Philippines. That delivery within the shortest possible time was vital in order to facilitate the resumption of full-power operation of the San Lorenzo Power Station. This air transportation challenge could only be met by the AN-225. The total weight of the cargo reached 180 t.

During December 1-2, 2013, Antonov Airlines performed air transportation of two green-energy tram carriages from Shijiazhuang, China, to Samsun, Turkey. Taking into account the cargo dimensions (each carriage of 20.04 x 2.88 x 3.60 m) the AN-225 Mriya, the world�s largest transport airplane with length of cargo compartment of 43.3 m, was chosen to perform this flight.

December 21, 2013 was the 25-year anniversary of the AN-225 maiden flight. For the whole operation period, the aircraft carried about 20500 t of cargo, more than 2500 of them � in 2013.

On December 3, 2013, representatives of Governments and Defense Industry Complexes of Ukraine and Russian Federation paid a working visit to ANTONOV Company. The Ukrainian delegation was headed by Yuriy Boyko, Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine, the Russian one -- by Dmitry Rogozin, Deputy Chairman of the Government of Russian Federation. During the negotiations, the parties discussed in details main directions of the Russian-Ukrainian cooperation and ways of further development of the aviation field. Besides, the delegates were interested in possibility of the second AN-225 Mriya construction.

The Ukrainian air freighter become one of the stars of the world�s fight against the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. The plane makes an average of 12 to 20 flights each year, but by April 2020 had already completed seven international deliveries. Media lined up to film the An-225 landing in Warsaw on April 14 stuffed with millions of items of personal protective equipment. Thousands of people reportedly turned out to watch the unique aircraft's arrival and one video of the April 14 landing has been viewed nearly 2 million times.

Ahe An-225 Mriya completed its first commercial flight on April 14, delivering 100 tons of medicines from China to Poland . A week later, on April 19, the plane brought another 150 tons of medical cargo from China to France. Also, the Antonov Airlines reported that the An-124 Ruslan aircraft had already launched the previously announced series of flights for the delivery of medical supplies from China to various cities in the United States, including Orlando, Houston, Washington, Los Angeles. It was planned that in May the An-225 Mriya will join in the implementation of these flights.

The Antonov State Enterprise founded a fund 24 March 2022 for the revival of the An-225 Mriya transport aircraft, which was destroyed at the Gostomel airfield as a result of Russia's attack on Ukraine. The enterprise stated that there is the necessary design and scientific and technical documentation for the restoration of Mriya, but there is not enough money. "We propose to establish an international fund for the revival of the An-225 Mriya transport aircraft," Antonov said. The company applied for financial support for the project to the heads of state and government of the world, aircraft manufacturers, suppliers, banks and financial institutions, and just ordinary people. The state concern Ukroboronprom said that more than three billion dollars would be needed to restore the destroyed plane .

"Some basic units for the glider are available. However, the new" Dream "must meet modern and promising standards of airworthiness, as well as be equipped in accordance with the list of tasks that it will perform," - Antonov said in a statement. "Antonov" explained that this will require a large amount of design and engineering work, selection and purchase of appropriate components, testing program and other tasks. "Undoubtedly, this project will be implemented in broad international cooperation, with the participation of leading companies and enterprises of the global aviation industry," the company said. Yuriy Gusev, General Director of Ukroboronprom, said: �Russia has destroyed our Dream, but the dream of a Ukraine free from the occupier cannot be destroyed. We will fight for our land and our home to a victorious end. And after the victory, you hear, we will definitely finish our new "Dream", which has been waiting for this in a safe place for many years. Everything will be Ukraine! �