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1st March 2022 (6 Topics)

World’s largest Cargo Aircraft Antonov An-225 destroyed in Russian Attack

Context

The world’s largest cargo aircraft, the Antonov An-225, has been “destroyed” in an attack on its base at Hostomel/Gostomel airport in Ukraine.

About

About Antonov An-225:

  • The Antonov AN-225 Mriya is the largest aircraft in the world and is the only aircraft that features six turbofan engines.
  • Nicknamed the "Mriya" (meaning dream) was in commercial service since 2001
  • Only one AN-225 was ever built to completion.
  • A second AN-225 began production in the late 1980s, but in 2009 when the aircraft had still not yet been completed, production was abandoned.
  • Technical features:
  • There are 20 steerable wheels in the 32-wheel landing gear.
  • The nose gear houses 4 steerable wheels and the other 16 are in the rear of the 18-wheel main gear.
  • The space shuttle that the AN-225 Mriya was originally tasked with transporting the space shuttle for the Soviet space program (the Buran spaceplane).
  • It made its international debut in absolute style by landing at the 1989 Paris Air Show with the shuttle on its back.

Indian landing:

  • It made its maiden landing in India in May 2016 at Hyderabad’s Shamshabad airport while en route to Perth to deliver a 117-tonne power generator (from Prague, the Czech Republic) to a mine in Australia.
  • It played an important role too in the COVID-19 fight, ferrying nearly 100 tonnes of medicines, laboratory kits, medical masks and personal protective equipment in various missions across Europe, Canada and to Africa.
  • It was even chartered to transport ‘Puma’ helicopters from Kabul to the U.K. after U.S. ended its mission in Afghanistan.
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