Antonov An-225 News and discussion thread

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Looking for some specific information on just how the An-124 fuselage was 'stretched' to create the An-225. Something more than "Fuselage extended by plusg ahead of and behind wing"(Gunston, 'The Osprey encyclopedia of Russian Aircraft) or "fuselage is based on the An-124 but....length increased by 7 meters" (Gordon and Komissarov, 'Antonov's Heavy Transports').
Drawings would be really nice. Other references would be nice. Does no one write about Antonov? Hope to stretch a RofG 1/144 An-124, if possible.

Thanks, all.
 
http://airwar.ru/other/draw/an124.html
http://airwar.ru/other/draw/an225.html

go there and compare, may be something will be of use
AFAIK An-225 drawings are simplified print-outs of original ANTK CAD
 
Thank you, Gregory, I do have both those. I have already enlarged the An-225 to 1/144 in anticipation of starting work.

Joe
 
Wouldn't be surprised if some of these at least were for the Chinese space industry.

http://www.janes.com/article/63341/china-and-ukraine-agree-to-restart-an-225-production
 
"China to develop 'modern' version of the legendary Antonov An-225 in bid to use the world's biggest plane to launch satellites"

Source:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4489664/World-s-largest-plane-set-help-China-launch-satellites.html#ixzz4sfb4M1db
 
Reading the text suggests there is more than just satellite launching being considered:

"The Airspace Industry Corporation of China (AICC) signed an agreement with the plane's creator, which, if approved, will allow the organization to design its own fleet that would launch commercial satellites into orbit.
However, the aerospace and defense firm would 'modernize' the craft in a fashion that would provide it with heavy lifting capabilities that could be 'greater than that of the US military'."

I suppose satellite launches are more plausible than a flying casino.

There is a neat graphic accompanying this story.
 

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Hobbes said:
What are they going to launch? A copy of HOTOL?
Nothing. It will be a heavy military transport. The space launch talk is a fig leaf. "Peaceful rise" and all that.
 
Hobbes said:
What are they going to launch? A copy of HOTOL?

I think it's this MAKS
index.php


Video with 2010 Information about restart of MAKS, so could be that China was behind this revival ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-snm5HqR2Uc


https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,6654.msg95337.html#msg95337
 
sferrin said:
Hobbes said:
What are they going to launch? A copy of HOTOL?
Nothing. It will be a heavy military transport. The space launch talk is a fig leaf. "Peaceful rise" and all that.

I agree with you sferrin, all the talk about the People's Republic of China entering the satellite launch business is just a cover story. The People's Republic of China has leased millions of acres in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Zambia. It has also established a military base in Djibouti and is expected to establish military bases in Pakistan. Satellite launches sound much better than manufacturing a fleet of aircraft based on the An-225 to support foreign military bases and global power projection.
 
In 2016, the Airspace Industry Corporation of China (AICC), a privately-owned aerospace and defense company, signed a cooperation agreement with Antonov for the An-225 programme. If it goes through as planned, the skies could soon be flooded by a fleet of Chinese built An-225s.

“The initial idea and early stage research of the An-225 started in 2009,” the president of AICC, Zhang Yousheng tells BBC Future. “The official contact with Antonov began in 2011, and then from 2013 to 2016 was the acceleration phase of this project.”

The Chinese company isn’t interested in purchasing the existing airworthy An-225. They have spent the past several years studying the feasibility of modernising the only other An-225, an unfinished airframe that has sat inside a hangar at Antonov’s giant corporate campus in downtown Kyiv for the past 30 years. This aircraft, when modernised, could give China a heavy lift capability that surpasses any other nation in the world – perhaps even greater than that of the US military.

According to Zhang, the An-225 would be the centrepiece of a hyper ambitious plan to add 1,000 heavy lift aircraft over the next 10 years.

Source:
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20170503-the-worlds-biggest-plane-may-have-a-new-mission

I believe that the article confuses Airspace Industry Corporation of China (AICC) with Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC).
 
AVIC is 'privately owned' and has 'Zhang Yousheng' as a President?
 
flateric said:
AVIC is 'privately owned' and has 'Zhang Yousheng' as a President?

Shrug. There seems to be disagreement in news articles concerning the name of the Chinese company. I presume that Aviation Week would get it right. Any one else heard of Airspace Industry Corporation of China?

"AVIC, Antonov Partner On An-225 Development"
Aug 31, 2016 Tony Osborne | Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

Source:
http://aviationweek.com/awindefense/avic-antonov-partner-225-development

LONDON—Ukrainian aerospace company Antonov and China’s Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) have signed a cooperation agreement to build a second prototype of the world’s largest aircraft, the An-225 ...


"China Will Resurrect The World's Largest Cargo Plane"

China signs deal to restart Ukrainian An-225
By Jeffrey Lin and P.W. Singer September 7, 2016

Source:
http://www.popsci.com/china-will-resurrect-worlds-largest-plane

On August 30, members of the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AICC) and the Antonov Corporation, the leading Ukrainian aviation company, signed an agreement to restart production of the AN-225, the world's largest cargo plane....
 
Triton said:
I agree with you sferrin, all the talk about the People's Republic of China entering the satellite launch business is just a cover story. The People's Republic of China has leased millions of acres in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Zambia. It has also established a military base in Djibouti and is expected to establish military bases in Pakistan. Satellite launches sound much better than manufacturing a fleet of aircraft based on the An-225 to support foreign military bases and global power projection.

A fleet of An-225s is hardly an economic proposal. The An-225 was developed to support the Soviet space programme, it wasn't a heavy lifter for Aeroflot or the VVS. They seemed content with the An-124 and even the USAF with its global network hasn't had reason to go bigger than the Galaxy and commercial operators have been satisfied with 747s at the top end. The An-225 is too large (physical size, ground footprint, ground pressure, runway length requirements) to ever be feasible for anything other than specialist work.
With the Russian's reviving the An-124 it would seem a more ideal heavy lifter for the Chinese would be that airframe.
 
"The mystery of China's mega plane"
by Robert Beckhusen

September 6, 2016

Source:
http://theweek.com/articles/646760/mystery-chinas-mega-plane

The Ukrainian aircraft builder Antonov, one of the most legendary Soviet-era companies, nearly went extinct following the Russian invasion of Crimea. The Kremlin, the firm's main customer, suddenly became non grata.

They had such a history together. Because of the Soviet Union, in the 1980s Antonov designed the largest airplane in the world — the An-225 Mriya or "dream," of which only one currently exists in flying order.

Today, the sole operating An-225 serves as a commercial cargo carrier hauling everything from super-heavy generators to turbine blades and oil machinery. Even more interesting, Antonov initially designed the plane to transport a reusable space shuttle on its back.

Now China wants to build one — and possibly others.

On Aug. 30, Kiev and Beijing signed a cooperation agreement to complete a second, unfinished An-225 and deliver it to the Aerospace Industry Corporation of China. "The second stage — organization of the joint series production of the An-225 in China under license," Antonov announced in a press release.

"In addition to funding, Ukraine will be guaranteed international cooperation and work in conjunction with global industrial majors who may join this project," the company added.

The AN-225 Mriya, known by its NATO reporting name "Cossack," is a heavily redesigned An-124 Ruslan — which currently serves in the Russian air force and is the largest military transport plane in the world. But the An-225 is longer, has two additional engines, a reinforced floor, larger wings and a twin-tail assembly.

All this means the Mriya can takeoff with a maximum weight of 700 tons, 200 more than a 747, and 50 more than the Airbus AN380–800F, the world's largest passenger plane and the second largest airliner in the world.

Like the Ruslan, the Mriya's nose swings upward to allow loading through the front. The Ruslan can also load cargo in its rear, but the Mriya can't.

The An-225 has the longest wingspan in the world — 290 feet — and is just generally a beast of an airplane. It doesn’t have the longest wingspan in history, which belongs to the H-4 Hercules or "Spruce Goose." But it is the heaviest plane in history.

The one existing An-225 first flew in 1988. But with the cancellation of the Buran shuttle program in 1993, Ukraine mothballed the second plane while it was under construction. Antonov will complete this second plane and deliver it to China.

And the company just released pictures of the second plane’s fuselage in its Kiev factory.

Mriya can lift such loads because of six ZMKB Progress D-18 turbofan engines capable of producing 51,600 pounds of thrust … each.

The plane packs 32 wheels (the A380 has 22) and can fly at a cruising speed of nearly 500 miles per hour with a maximum range of around 9,500 miles — without subtracting for tonnage added inside Mriya’s enormous hold.

But the An-225 is not just an aircraft — it’s a business. And Ukraine's aircraft industry is desperate for customers.

Antonov, a formerly Soviet company, became part of an independent Ukraine in 1991. But despite the collapse of the USSR, the company carried on much as it had before, designing rugged transport planes for Russia and other countries — but mainly Russia.

The company designed planes, and did not build them. However, Antonov dipped into manufacturing in 2009, and started building passenger jets for customers including Cuba and North Korea, according to the New York Times.

But Antonov was on thin ice. The Russian invasion of Crimea and Eastern Europe worsened the situation. With Kiev fighting Russian-backed fighters — thousands of Russian servicemen among them — in eastern Ukraine, defense ties with the Kremlin came to an abrupt halt.

Predictably, Antonov collapsed and nearly took Ukraine’s aviation industry down with it. "Antonov is Ukraine’s calling card. It built the most powerful transport planes that beat all the world records," Ukrainian military analyst Valentyn Badrak told the Times in 2014. "Losing it would be like cutting off an arm."

Of course, the company still exists, but barely. In January 2016, Ukraine liquidated Antonov’s assets and transferred them underneath the state-owned defense conglomerate Ukroboronprom.

The overriding question involves China’s purpose behind acquiring the world’s biggest airplane. There are few details, and a general rule when it comes to major aviation projects is believe it when you see it.

Vasily Kashin, a Russian military expert, noted that the Chinese buyer shares a similar name to China’s enormous Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), but they’re not the same, and AICC is tiny in comparison.

"The deal fits into a conventional model of China acquiring technologies for military use and for Ukraine it's a deal with a small import-export intermediary firm," Kashin said according to the Russian state media outlet Sputnik.

The An-225 has shortcomings as a strategic military airlifter. Mainly, it’s really big and needs a minimum of 11,500 feet while carrying its maximum payload to takeoff — limiting where it can go. That’s not very strategic. Although it does have military experience, such as hauling 216,000 meals to Oman for U.S. troops in January 2002, according to Popular Mechanics.

To be sure, China needs heavy-lift jet transport planes, but it needs lots of them, and millions of man hours over decades learning how they operate.

It's hard to see how an expensive, highly-specialized and super-large monster plane advances this goal. Although the Chinese air force needs as much experience as it can building heavy airlifters, which only a handful of nations know how to do.

Right now Beijing's sole domestically produced, strategic jet airlifter is the Xian Y-20, which made its maiden flight in 2013.

Antonov has also not signed over intellectual property rights. "The rights of the An-225 ‘Mriya’ certificate holder, including An-225 intellectual property rights, will not be reassigned by Antonov State Company to the Chinese side," the company stated.

Another (most likely) possibility is that a Chinese An-225 could do what the Ukrainian one does now — flying very-heavy commercial loads around the world, including to and from China. This would require a private company interested in flying them, but it's not out of the question. Although Antonov Airlines' sole An-225 only flies once or twice per year.

There's another option. It’s what the Soviets originally designed the An-225 to do — haul a space shuttle.

It's highly unlikely China will want to build an expensive, inefficient manned shuttle like the Soviet Buran or the NASA Space Shuttle. But the Mriya could support the Chinese space program by air launching space boosters carrying small payloads.

We do know China is experimenting with an air-launched, unmanned space plane known as Shenlong. In 2007, photographs of the Shenlong — or "Divine Dragon" — appeared, depicting it attached underneath a Xian H-6 bomber. A jumbo transport plane could support a larger space plane developed in the 2020s.

And let's not forget that the Soviets once envisioned the An-225 launching a space plane known as MAKS. A Mriya would have carried a reusable rocket-powered spacecraft on its back before diving to build speed, soaring to 28,000 feet and then releasing MAKS to roar itself into orbit.

But frankly, we have no idea what China is trying to do. Or whether that second, half-completed airframe will ever leave Kiev.
 
Source:
https://thaimilitaryandasianregion.wordpress.com/2016/09/02/antonov-an-225-mriya-strategic-airlifter/
 

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Maybe the People's Republic of China has this in mind.

Source:
http://www.buran.ru/htm/foto9.htm
 

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Hood said:
A fleet of An-225s is hardly an economic proposal. The An-225 was developed to support the Soviet space programme, it wasn't a heavy lifter for Aeroflot or the VVS. They seemed content with the An-124 and even the USAF with its global network hasn't had reason to go bigger than the Galaxy and commercial operators have been satisfied with 747s at the top end. The An-225 is too large (physical size, ground footprint, ground pressure, runway length requirements) to ever be feasible for anything other than specialist work.
With the Russian's reviving the An-124 it would seem a more ideal heavy lifter for the Chinese would be that airframe.

I thought that An-124 Ruslan production and support for the Russian Air Force was stopped due to political tensions between the Russian Federation and Ukraine. In any case, I am skeptical of the commercial satellite launch business cover story based on past disinformation that has surrounded the sale of military hardware to the People's Republic of China by Ukraine. I guess in time we will see how the People's Republic of China uses its An-225 aircraft.
 
Having watched the An-225 nearly bring the Farnborough air display to a halt, after it taxied into a position it couldn't taxi out of, I find the case for it being a strategic airlifter unconvincing. Three An-124s or two An-225s - I know what I would pick.
 
if you fear a naval blockade of a set of remote territory surrounded by vast expenses of water, a giant plane coupled with long runways is the solution to most of your problems. It will put your adversary trough a tough dilemma: being the one that fire the first shot of anger ;)
 
A used 747 and a scissors lift will be the ideal solution under such conditions, at least for containers and pallets - which are mostly what you need in the event of blockade.
 
Hood said:
Triton said:
I agree with you sferrin, all the talk about the People's Republic of China entering the satellite launch business is just a cover story. The People's Republic of China has leased millions of acres in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Zambia. It has also established a military base in Djibouti and is expected to establish military bases in Pakistan. Satellite launches sound much better than manufacturing a fleet of aircraft based on the An-225 to support foreign military bases and global power projection.

A fleet of An-225s is hardly an economic proposal. The An-225 was developed to support the Soviet space programme, it wasn't a heavy lifter for Aeroflot or the VVS. They seemed content with the An-124 and even the USAF with its global network hasn't had reason to go bigger than the Galaxy and commercial operators have been satisfied with 747s at the top end. The An-225 is too large (physical size, ground footprint, ground pressure, runway length requirements) to ever be feasible for anything other than specialist work.
With the Russian's reviving the An-124 it would seem a more ideal heavy lifter for the Chinese would be that airframe.

I don't know about that, the time or two or three it's come to YYC (Calgary International) it's hauled out some pretty big loads
 
Sure wish I knew this was coming in. I'm less than 10 minutes from this airport, it would have been very cool to see this beast. Came in last Sunday, Sept. 9th. I've seen the An-124 at Oakland a couple of times, always exciting.

Monday, September 10, 2018 08:20PM
OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) --
The Antonov An-225 is biggest plane in the world and it was spotted in the East Bay over the weekend. SKY7 was overhead when the giant plane took off from Oakland International Airport, Monday morning.

The jet loaded with FEMA relief supplies left the airport around 7:00 a.m.

It's headed to Hawaii where Hurricane Olivia is expected to hit mid-week, and then to Guam, which is threatened by a typhoon.

The six-engine Ukrainian-designed Antonov An-225 arrived in Oakland on Sunday before it left the airport with a special delivery.


https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=an-225+at+oakland+airport&mkt=en-us&httpsmsn=1&refig=b6a05ef5e7eb43e5a1adaced0d75c5a0&PC=NMTS&sp=-1&pq=an-225+at+oakland+airp&sc=0-22&qs=n&sk=&cvid=b6a05ef5e7eb43e5a1adaced0d75c5a0&ru=%2fsearch%3fq%3dan-225%2bat%2boakland%2bairport%26form%3dEDGSPH%26mkt%3den-us%26httpsmsn%3d1%26refig%3db6a05ef5e7eb43e5a1adaced0d75c5a0%26PC%3dNMTS%26sp%3d-1%26pq%3dan-225%2bat%2boakland%2bairp%26sc%3d0-22%26qs%3dn%26sk%3d%26cvid%3db6a05ef5e7eb43e5a1adaced0d75c5a0&view=detail&mmscn=vwrc&mid=9DE025F6B58C4F1429B39DE025F6B58C4F1429B3&FORM=WRVORC
 

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"back in action" implies that the aircraft had been grounded. Is that correct? I had the impression the An-225 was in regular use.
 
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Ah sure, with 6 engines and 300 ft wing span, plus the according vortexes at the tips... fog can't win.
 
in the near future, I'm going to merge all the An-225 threads together
posting on behalf of @TomcatViP

 
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in the near future, I'm going to merge all the An-225 threads together

Ship of Theseus/Trigger's Broom paradox for the new age eh? I'm not sure "rebuilding" is the right word in this case. Not to mention there are some slightly more important rectification projects in that part of the world......
 
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in the near future, I'm going to merge all the An-225 threads together

Ship of Theseus/Trigger's Broom paradox for the new age eh? I'm not sure "rebuilding" is the right word in this case. Not to mention there are some slightly more important rectification projects in that part of the world......


fb4e1004bd9bbc1f8a1211847b4b1d53.jpg

It is like the proverbial navy joke about rebuilding ships rather than purchasing new ones - only the ship bell remains at the end of the rebuild.
 
US Army does the same with their H-6 helicopters. Pry the data plate off, straighten it out, glue it on a new airframe.
 
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