The World's biggest plane touched down at Manchester Airport yesterday, which celebrates its 75th anniversary today.
The Antonov 225 Mriya is the heaviest aircraft in the world, with a maximum takeoff weight of 640 tonnes. Built in 1998, it was originally developed specifically to transport the Buran spaceplane and is in commercial operation with Antonov Airlines carrying oversized payloads.
It holds the world record for an airlifted single item payload of 189,980 kilograms and an airlifted total payload of 253,820 kilograms. It has also transported a payload of 247,000 kilograms on a commercial flight.
The Mriya - which means 'dream' in Ukrainian - is one of its kind and based in Kiev. A second An-225 has been partially completed.
The plane landed yesterday lunchtime, carrying cargo, and was expected to depart this morning. However, its departure has now been delayed and the aircraft is scheduled to depart at 10.30 tomorrow (Wednesday) morning.
Thanks to GMP Manchester Aiport for the photo above and Anthony Bryant Photography for the second photo.
To get a better feel of the size of this aircraft take a look at this photo on twitter from yesterday or take look at wikipedia.
Comments
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Very big, very nosy, a bit smoky... and quite majestic!
We could still hear it some minutes later!