How Large Was The Antonov An-225 'Mriya' Jet & Why Was It Destroyed?

If you're an aviation fan, you've probably heard of the Antonov An-225 "Mriya." This jet was once the world's largest, powered by its six huge turbofan engines. However, the jet made the news in 2022 when it was destroyed at its home airport. This was devastating to many aviation fans around the world, but the circumstances of its destruction were an even greater tragedy. The Mriya, which in Ukranian means "Dream," has served the globe for many years since its inception. It has ferried spacecraft, large industrial machines like boilers and transformers, helicopters, and even a train.

But why did someone build such a large cargo plane in the first place? And what happened to the An-225 that led to its destruction? Let's take a quick look at how the An-225 became the world's largest cargo plane, how big its capacity was, its current fate, and the future of this super heavy cargo aircraft.

The Antonov An-124 was a heavy-lift strategic military transport the Soviets built in 1982. This aircraft was similar to the U.S.'s Lockheed C-5 Galaxy and was the basis of the An-225. However, the Soviets needed something bigger to carry its Buran spacecraft, the USSR's fledgling space shuttle program that did not survive the fall of the Iron Curtain.

The U.S. used two modified 747s, called Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, to carry the Space Shuttles between their landing sites and launch sites, like transferring them between Edwards Air Force Base in California and the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Since the Soviet Union was unlikely to get its hands on a Boeing 747 even if it wanted to, it had to build its own transport aircraft to carry the Buran.

This was how the An-225 Mriya came to be — as the transportation for the Buran shuttle orbiter and parts of the Energia rocket designed to put the Buran into orbit. However, after a single unmanned test flight in 1988, the Buran and the entire program behind it was scrapped due to rising costs and the collapse of the Soviet Union.

During the planning stage, Antonov envisioned three variants for the An-225. The first one was the An-224, which was designed for the Buran and was eventually renamed the An-225. However, they also planned for the An-225-100, which was an improvement over the original An-225 and included better navigation equipment and a traffic collision avoidance system, or TCAS, to make it more suitable for civilian use. Lastly, the company planned an even bigger variant with the An-325, which extends the fuselage and adds an additional engine to increase its carrying capacity.

The original An-225 needed to be massive because it had to carry the Buran on its back. However, it also needed a large internal volume as it was intended to transport parts of the Buran's rocket system internally. The Soviets planned to have two An-225s in service, but only one ever flew. The second prototype, which was supposed to receive a rear cargo door and a redesigned tail, was shelved in 1993.

[ Featured Image by Ralf Manteufel via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | Public Domain ]

Even though only one Antonov An-225 ever flew, it was a massive beast. It had a wingspan of 88.4 meters or over 290 feet and a length of 84 meters or over 275 feet. It was also 18.2 meters or almost 60 feet tall, which is a little over four stories tall. This made the An-225 one of the biggest jets ever made, and it would've made the list of the largest planes in the world in 2024 if it hadn't been destroyed.

This makes the An-225 larger than some of the most popular large commercial jets, like the Boeing 747-8 or the Airbus A380. The 747-8 has a wingspan of 68.4 meters or over 224 feet, a length of 76.3 meters or around 250 feet, and a height of 19.4 meters or 63.5 feet. On the other hand, the A380 has a wingspan of 79.8 meters or over 261 feet, a length of 72.7 meters or less than 239 feet, and a height of 24.1 meters or a little over 79 feet.

These numbers show that the An-225 has a significantly wider wingspan than these two jets and it's also much longer. But what counts more than these dimensions is the Mriya's cargo capacity. It has a maximum takeoff weight (MTOW) of about 705 tons, and it can carry 250 tons of cargo internally inside its 280-sqm cargo bay. On the other hand, the 747-8 only has an MTOW of 493.5 tons, while the A380 can carry around 560 tons.

[ Featured Image by Clem Tillier via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | CC BY-SA 2.5 ]

The An-225 Mriya was undergoing maintenance at Hostomel Airport on February 24, 2022, when Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. As part of its hopes to capture Kyiv quickly, Russia sent airborne forces to capture Hostomel Airport. However, what was supposed to be a quick operation turned into a 36-hour battle, which led to the destruction of the world's largest cargo plane.

When Ukraine repelled the invaders from Hostomel Airport on April 2, 2022, they discovered the true extent of the damage to the An-225. The cargo jet was totally destroyed, with its wings broken, part of the fuselage burnt out, and the section between the wings and the nose missing. The area around the shattered jet also contained the mangled remains of military trucks and tracked vehicles, giving us a taste of the hell that the jet went through during the harrowing hours of the start of the Russian invasion in February.

Although Russia destroyed the only An-225 ever in existence, Ukraine will not let the giant jet remain in our memories. On May 20, 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a statement that a second An-225 would be completed to replace the destroyed aircraft. "In this case, it's not a matter of money; it's a matter of ambition." He added, "We were approached by 'Ukroboronprom,' the Antonov team. This is a matter of our country's image and all the wonderful professional pilots who died in this war."

Antonov announced in November 2022 that the project to rebuild the Mriya is already underway. The cost to rebuild the jet is estimated to be at least $500 million, with around 30% of the components a new An-225 requires already on hand. However, experts say that the price could balloon to over $3 billion.

The company said that design work has already begun for the new jet, but it will give out more information "after the victory," presumably, of Ukraine over Russia. If you're one of the fans of the Antonov An-225 Mriya, then you can pitch in on the project by purchasing the An-225 Mriya on the "Microsoft Flight Simulator" marketplace for $19.99. Microsoft pledged that all proceeds of the sale will go to Antonov toward the rebuilding of this fabled cargo plane.