Ukraine announces the destruction of the An-225 Mriya, the biggest plane in the world

The Russian invasion of the Ukraine is the 9/11 of this generation. Many things are going to change in the world, and one of them will be a true aviation legend.

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This afternoon, at 16:47 CET, the official Ukrainian Twitter channel announced the destruction of the Antonov An-225 Mriya: "The world's largest aircraft 'Mriya' (The Dream) was destroyed by Russian occupants at an airfield near Kyiv. We will rebuild the plane. We will fulfill our dream of a strong, free and democratic Ukraine." Along with this text, he has shown an image of the plane with this epitaph: "They burned the biggest plane, but our Mriya will never perish."

A few minutes later, Antonov, the owner of the plane, announced on her official Twitter channel: "Update on the status of the An-225 'Mriya' aircraft: Currently, until the An-225 is inspected by experts, we cannot report on the technical status of the aircraft. Please wait for the next official announcement."

This Saturday, in a message published in English, Antonov had pointed out: "We don’t have accurate information about #AN225 Mriya. Now in Gostomel (it is the region where airfield base @AntonovAirlines) still fighting continues. according to the latest information (24.02.2022) the plane was intact". In Gostomel is where the Antonov Airport is, from where this company operated the An-225 and also An-124 Ruslan transport planes.

This morning at 11:29 CET, the OSINT_Canada Twitter channel posted this alleged image of the destroyed plane, inside its hangar:

OSINT_Canada as also posted this photo of the hangar when it was intact:

Airline Ratings has published this analysis of the images carried out by Vortex#1949:

The An-225 was developed by Antonov in the 1980s from the four-engined An-124 as a special aircraft to transport the Soviet Buran program shuttles. It made its first flight on December 21, 1988. Construction began on a second example that was never completed. The original plane was restored in 2001 after years of neglect after the fall of the USSR.

During these years, the An-225 has been carrying out all kinds of transport around the world. Equipped with six engines, it had a load capacity of 250 tons. It was a huge plane, with a fuselage 84 meters long and a wingspan of 88.4 meters. Its cruising speed was 800 km/h and it had a range of 4,000 kilometers at full load.

At the moment, the status of the fleet of 4 An-124s operated by Antonov Airlines from Gostomel is unknown. This plane, the Soviet equivalent of the American C-5 Galaxy, is another of the giants of aviation history. Hopefully Ukraine can rebuild everything the Russians are destroying.

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Photos: Antonov Airlines (1) / Antonov Airlines (2) / Ralf Manteufel / OSINT_Canada.