The Antonov An-225 Mriya was the biggest plane to ever take to the sky . Unfortunately , the colossal aircraft is no longer with us as it was destroyed during the loose stages of the ongoing Russo - Ukrainian War .
Often known simply asMriya , which means “ dream ” or “ inspiration ” in Ukrainian , the plane had a distance of 84 meters ( 275 feet ) and a tallness of 18.2 meters ( about 60 feet ) with a wing span of 88.40 meter ( 290 feet ) .
Along with being the big airplane by overall size , it was the heaviest plane to ever vanish with a total weight of 629.89 short ton . It also achieved the heaviest lading ever lifted by a planing machine when it carried out a single piece of machinery consider 189,980 kilo ( 418,834 pounds ) from Germany to Armenia .
Pictured in April 2022, the world-famous AN-225 Mriya was destroyed in February 2022 during the Battle of Antonov Airport.Image credit: Oleksii Samsonov/Shutterstock.com
power by six turbofan engines , the independent skill of the almighty Mriya was its huge freight mental ability . It was initially developed in the eighties by the USSR as a means to transport spacecraft into ambit , exchangeable to the US Shuttle Carrier Aircraft .
While the USSR aimed to build two of the planing machine , only one was ever completed . It flew on its maiden voyage on December 21 , 1988 , taking off from the factory aerodrome in Svyatoshyn , an airfield near the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv . However , its use was suspend following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the woodworking plane spent the rest of its life as a charter - out cargo shipping .
As touched on earlier , Mriya wasdestroyed in February 2022during the Russian invasion of Ukraine amid the Battle of Antonov Airport .
On February 24 , the Russian armed services save hundreds of military personnel via helicopter to the airport near Kyiv in an endeavor to fascinate the website and apply it as a primal scaffolding background for an assault on the capital . Both sides vied for command , but Russian forces at last bewitch the airdrome . However , the Ukrainian resistance successfully endanger the Russian ’s plans for a swift takeover of Kyiv , plus the airport was too disadvantageously damaged to be used regardless .
Ukraine claimed that Mriya was by design destroy by Russian force-out and argue the iconic plane should be rebuilt entirely at the expense of Russia .
The Soviet Union produce some absolutely gigantic fly machine in its flower . In the 1960s , they grow the Caspian Sea Monster , with an estimated length of 92 meters ( 302 foot ) . While the Caspian Sea Monster was longer than Mriya , it had a small wingspan and takeoff weight , so is generally considered to be little . It was also technically an ekranoplan , a intercrossed vehicle that combine features of a plane and a boat , and could not fly at high-pitched altitude like traditional aircrafts or Mriya .
