The World’s Largest Plane: Why The Soviets Really Built The AN-225 Mriya

This video was made possible thanks to CuriosityStream. Watch thousands of high-quality documentaries  and get access to my Nebula streaming service using the link in the description.  It is an air

plane

that would never have been

built

today. It burns up to 20 tons of fuel per hour and is too big for a third of the

world

's airports. But this Cold War relic was

built

to do what no other aircraft in the

world

could: lift huge components for the Soviet space program and even put spacecraft into orbit by serving as an air launch platform.   The Soviets had big plans for this

plane

, but when they unveiled it to the world at the 1989 Paris Air Show, it was a plane built for a future that would never exist.

In 1982, the Soviet Union began airlifting components of a new space launch system, strapping huge pieces to the backs of planes and flying them thousands of miles across the country.   They are racing to build the counterpart to the American space shuttle, a rival spacecraft and launch system called Energia-Buran. Like previous Soviet spacecraft, it is being built here, at aerospace manufacturing facilities in the west, and will be launched here thousands of miles away. But unlike previous spacecraft, Energia-Buran's components are too large to be transported by rail, so they will have to be transported by air. In a hurry, the Soviets convert 1950s-era bombers for the job, but the planes are not up to the task.

They can only lift smaller components, and even these must be disassembled to make them as light as possible. To transport fully assembled components, some of which are almost 60 meters long, the Soviets will need a much larger plane. The Americans solved their need to transport space shuttles by converting Boeing 747s into aircraft carriers. The jumbo jet was an ideal plane for work, large and powerful; It was modified by reducing weight, strengthening its fuselage and adding additional stabilizers. And unlike the Soviets, the Americans would also use rail lines and larger components would be transported by water using barges.

Only the shuttle orbiter would need to be transported by air. The Soviets, on the other hand, would need to airlift their entire launch system, including the giant rocket boosters and core stages.  And with the Soviet leadership pushing to begin launches in 1988, engineers had little time to find a solution. So naturally, they sought out the

largest

aircraft the Soviet Union had to offer.   Under development in the early 1980s, the Antonov 124 would enter service as the world's

largest

and most capable transport, and just in time for the Energia-Buran launches.  But even the huge 124 wasn't going to be enough, the engineers would have to make the plane even bigger.   And to do so, they would lengthen the fuselage and add route extensions to increase the wingspan.   For more power, they would give the plane two more engines.

With a sturdy fuselage, the new plane could easily carry a Buran orbiter, but larger components would clog the tail. So engineers redesigned the vertical stabilizer. To cope with the immense weight of the new plane and prevent it from damaging the runways, they would give it a new landing gear: they would distribute the weight between 32 wheels. Larger and more capable, this new titan of the skies would be designated An-225; The An-225 is unlike any aircraft in the world. Six turbofans generated a staggering 309,000 pounds of thrust, giving it the ability to lift nearly twice the payload of its Western contemporaries.

It's a plane so big that the Wright Brothers could have made their first flight entirely inside its cargo hold.   The 225's primary mission would be to transport Energia-Buran components, but designers also envisioned using the aircraft to do what had never been done before. Launch a spaceship into orbit   directly from the air. This is because the 225 would be powerful enough to fly a fully fueled and payloaded spaceplane to the lower stratosphere, where it would then be launched to an altitude of 8 kilometers. Allowing you to reach orbit at a tenth of the cost of launching from the ground.   The reusable launch system would complement the Energia-Buran and its development was already underway in 1988.

The Soviets planned to build several Antonov An-225s to serve as the backbone of their space program for decades to come. In November 1988, the Soviets surprised the world with the first unmanned launch of a Buran. Until that time, few in the West would have had any idea that the Soviets had developed their own version of the space shuttle. And the following year, the Soviets gave Western audiences a first-hand look when the massive 225 brought a Buran to the Paris Air Show. The monstrous plane drew crowds, but experts were baffled. To get to the air show, the Soviets had flown their new spacecraft through a storm.

A measure that NASA would have considered reckless with its space shuttle.   But at this point, damaging the Buran was the least of the Soviet Union's worries. Because in 1989 the country was bankrupt and could no longer afford Energia-Buran. And it meant that the spacecraft would never launch again. Without the need to airlift the orbiters' core stages and boosters, the 225 was displayed at Western air shows as the Soviets struggled to find an alternative use for the giant aircraft. And it seemed that nothing was ruled out. One proposal considered using the 225 to deploy an Ekranoplans for maritime rescue missions.

The British considered using the plane as a launch pad for their own proposed space plane. At one point there was even a proposal for a huge three-decker airliner. But none of these plans ever materialized. In 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed and before long, the 225 was shipped to a warehouse outside kyiv, Ukraine, where it was scoured for parts. The largest plane in the world now seemed destined for scrapping.  With the fall of the Soviet Union, Ukraine's Antonov Design Bureau had difficulty finding customers for its aircraft. But they did find a new source of income by leasing their existing fleet to transport cargo.

Since the An-124s had more lifting power than any aircraft in the world, Antonov found a good business transporting everything from gigantic electrical generators to locomotives.   But every now and then, they would receive a request to transport cargo that not even their 124 could handle. By the late '90s, the arguments in favor of resurrecting the giant 225 were gaining strength.   But it was not an easy decision. Unlike the smaller 124, which was built specifically for cargo, the 225 was a relic of the Soviet space program, with a heavily reinforced fuselage to support external payloads. And unlike the 124, the plane had no rear cargo door, which would slow down the loading process.

But Antonov bet the plane could fill a niche. And after years in storage, $20 million was invested in new engines, modernized avionics and a new reinforced cargo hold.   On its first charter flight in January 2002, the 225 carried a payload of 187 tons.   A feat that would otherwise have required two Boeing 747 freighters. The world's largest aircraft had been given new life to carry cargo that would otherwise have been impossible to fly.   And over the course of the next two decades, the 225 set new world records for the immense payloads it carried. But the plane's enormous capabilities come with enormous costs. Costing more than $30,000 an hour to operate, the 225 only flies when no other aircraft can do the job.

And since only one of its type has been produced, the giant aircraft remains one of a kind. Drawing crowds wherever it flies. A completed second half, 225, was in storage for more than 30 years.   And despite the usual headlines about how it might one day be completed, it's not certain whether there will ever be enough demand for a second spacecraft transporter converted into a cargo plane.   The An225 was built in an era when technological advantages, whether in space or in the air, had to be achieved no matter the cost. And in the 1970s, as the Soviets rushed to develop the Buran to catch up with the American space shuttle, the Americans were developing other radical technology to gain a tactical advantage in the air.

Not flying higher or faster than the enemy.   But being practically invisible to the radar. You can learn more about the invention of stealth technology and the incredible F-117 Nighthawk in my latest video now on Nebula. Nebula is a streaming site that I helped create alongside some of YouTube's top educational creators. And it is where