Antonov 225 news

Reports suggest that the world fleet of Antonov 225 freight aircraft could double by 2019. In 1988, Antonov completed the first and only six-engined 225 essentially to carry Buran, the Soviet space shuttle.

The collapse of the Soviet Union led to the cancellation of the space shuttle programme. This first An-225 was mothballed for eight years before being commercially certificated and put into air cargo service. A second aircraft is incomplete at Antonov’s Kiev factory.

A new agreement between Airspace Corporation of China and Antonov would secure funding to resume assembly and for subsequent ‘planes to be built in China.

To put it in perspective, the Antonov set a world -ecord payload of 247,000 kg (545,000 pounds) for a commercial flight and has a maximum take-off weight of 640,000kg (1,410,958lb). Its length is 84m (275 ft 7in) and  wingspan 88.4m (290 ft).

There have been 66 deliveries of the Boeing 747-8 Freighters to date with Boeing forecasting a requirement for 500 large cargo aircraft over the next 20 years. The “eight” is 76.3m (250 ft) long with a wingspan of 68.5m (224 ft) and a maximum all-up weight of 448,000kg (987,000lb).

The A380 is not produced in freighter form.

www.antonov.com/aircraft  www.boeing.com/commercial

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