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World's only An-225 destroyed by Russian airstrikes
- chinathrow 5y agoUpdated with pictures: https://www.aeroinside.com/16738/antonov-an-225-at-kyiv-hostomel-ukraine-destroyed-during-military-attack-while-parked-on-ground https://www.aeroinside.com/16738/antonov-an-225-at-kyiv-host...
- divbzero 5y agoThe Antonov 225 is featured in Episode 2 of a short documentary series called Exceptional Planes [1]. [1]: https://tubitv.com/series/300004925/aircraft-exceptional-planes https://tubitv.com/series/300004925/aircraft-exceptional-pla...
- adrianomartins 5y agoHere's a photo of it: https://www.reddit.com/r/aviation/comments/t6d2eh/closer_photo_of_the_225_not_sure_if_someone_has https://www.reddit.com/r/aviation/comments/t6d2eh/closer_pho...
- stemc43 5y ago
- yosito 5y ago
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- unmole 5y agoFrom the guidelines: > Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith. > Please don't post insinuations about astroturfing, shilling, bots, brigading, foreign agents and the like. It degrades discussion and is usually mistaken. If you're worried about abuse, email hn@ycombinator.com and we'll look at the data.
- drran 5y ago
- unmole 5y agoPosting on HN will make zero difference towards stopping the war. Deviating from the guidelines however will make HN less pleasant and less useful. From what I have seen, dang doesn't immediately reach for the ban-hammer.
- drran 5y ago
- dang 5y agoThe rules aren't relaxed. Please review the guidelines, including this one: "Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html The reason the rules haven't changed is that the reason for the rules hasn't changed: we don't want this forum to burn itself to the ground. What good would that do anyone?
- wchar_t 5y ago> Please don't post insinuations about astroturfing, shilling, bots, brigading, foreign agents and the like. It degrades discussion and is usually mistaken. If you're worried about abuse, email hn@ycombinator.com and we'll look at the data. I agree. But please don't group all accusations into this bucket -- take a look at OP's comment history, they do have a tendency to make these kind of comments.
- unmole 5y ago> they do have a tendency to make these kind of comments. Sure. But I'm not seeing anything to indicate that it is a bot or a shill account. There are plenty of other perfectly normal comments too.
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- H8crilA 5y agoRe-posting from another thread on this plane Funny ATC comms when this amazing plane landed in Oakland: https://youtu.be/UFwQiaH5ZsU https://youtu.be/UFwQiaH5ZsU The controller has basically arranged an ad-hoc photoshoot, sending planes to the best positions for viewing the Antonov :)
- stemc43 5y ago
- steeve 5y agoYou’re this close to saying the whole thing is Ukraine’s fault, right?
- EdwardDiego 5y agoHis comment reminds me of a famous quip from David Lange about "I can smell the uranium on your breath", although in this case it's borscht and/or vodka. https://teara.govt.nz/files/32901-enz-h.mp4 https://teara.govt.nz/files/32901-enz-h.mp4
- nsinenko 5y ago
- bigDinosaur 5y agoEven if that were true, which I doubt, who is at fault? Could it possibly be Russia for, I don't know, launching a full scale invasion? :)
- s9w 5y ago
- ddalex 5y agoThe only truth here is that Russia invaded Ukraine, and without the invasion this destruction would not have taken place. Russia brought the war, and now are acting as "well it's your fault for resisting, why can't you just bend over and take it". This is the incovenient truth. dang, can we please ban in this account that spews propaganda ?
- gpderetta 5y agoThe "Why did you make me hit you" defense. edit: to be clear, I'm referring to the grandparent post.
- faebi 5y agoHow will this affect global supply chains? I heard it was essential to transport certain extra large goods to exotic locations.
- sofixa 5y agoBadly. Even more so because it's little brothers ( still enormous, second biggest cargo aircraft), the An-124s, and everything else by Antonov, will have to be grounded due to lack of spares.
- H8crilA 5y agoThere are still the Boeing Dreamlifter and the Airbus Beluga.
- btgeekboy 5y agoThe AN-225 was in a category of its own. In fact, the Dreamlifter was modified to fit components for the 787, but it actually has a lower max takeoff weight (803k lbs) than the original 747 it came from (875k lbs). Meanwhile, the Beluga XL only has a max takeoff weight of 500k lbs. The AN-225 had a max takeoff weight of 1.4m lbs.
- alliao 5y agowow 747 doesn't mess around huh, just a naive lb/engine would bring 747 up to 1.3m lbs (4 on 747 and 6 on AN-225) very cool
- rob74 5y agoWell yeah, both the Dreamlifter and the Beluga were designed to carry aircraft parts, which are large, but not particularly heavy. Also, they are modified versions of civilian cargo aircraft. Both the AN-124 and the AN-225 are (were) basically military transport aircraft with high wings and short landing gears to allow loading via ramps - so a different kind of beast...
- elevaet 5y agoFrom wikipedia: > The Antonov An-225 Mriya (Ukrainian: Антонов Ан-225 Мрія, lit. ''dream' or 'inspiration''; NATO reporting name: Cossack) was a strategic airlift cargo aircraft designed in the 1980s by the Antonov Design Bureau in Soviet Ukraine. It was originally developed as an enlargement of the Antonov An-124 to transport Buran-class orbiters, and only one example was ever completed. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonov_An-225_Mriya https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonov_An-225_Mriya
- thematrixturtle 5y agoIt was also by a fair margin the largest plane actively flying when measured by weight (285T empty, 640T fully loaded), wingspan (88m) or even number of engines (6).
- jpgvm 5y agoAt GTW of 640T it could support up to 260T of multi-item cargo or 190T single item payloads, truly in a class of it's own. Even Boeing and Airbus internal transports pale in comparison. RIP beautiful bird.
- m2fkxy 5y agoBoeing and Airbus freighters being a pale comparison is not surprising. They are optimised for cargo volume, much less weight. Comparing the Mrija to heavy military airlifters (Ruslan, Galaxy, Globemaster III...) would make more sense. The impressive thing about the Mrija is that it's both good at lifting volume (over-wing transport) and weight.
- masklinn 5y ago> They are optimised for cargo volume, much less weight. An other interesting bit is Mriya’s hold was pressurised (though apparently relatively low, it was not a plane for paras), neither dreamlifter nor beluga have pressurised holds. > Comparing the Mrija to heavy military airlifters (Ruslan, Galaxy, Globemaster III...) would make more sense. It still dwarfs them all since it’s an enlarged version of the Ruslan (124). It could carry almost twice the weight a 124 can.
- mrtri 5y ago
- Neil44 5y agoIt feels strange that amongst all the destruction and loss of life that I should feel upset that this big plane got destroyed but here we are.
- gpderetta 5y agosymbols are important.
- jpgvm 5y agoThere are a lot of reasons to be upset despite the fact it's an inanimate object. It was one of a kind. During the last few years it's been primarily chartered for humanitarian aid missions, largely in support of the response to Covid-19 delivering PPE, medication and equipment. Not to mention it being a national symbol and point of pride of the Ukrainian people.
- FpUser 5y ago>"all the destruction and loss of life" It was / is always there yet people still having fun and care about all kinds of things. This is how we were "designed".
- johntiger1 5y agodon't be so hard on yourself friend
- UltraViolence 5y ago
- axiosgunnar 5y ago> I despise the Ukrainian government Ridiculous, victim-blaming statement
- teknopaul 5y agoIts fairly normal to despise governments. As a left leaning European exiled by Brexit, I despise the UK government. Blaming the govt is arguably not blaming the victims. That said, I don't think the Ukrainian govt did anything wrong here myself. Times of war are times when we should try hard to be understanding of people's opinions. And not call names.
- illwrks 5y agoRead the article: "Last flight on February 5, 2022" "As it was under maintenance, it was thus not able to leave Ukraine before the Russian invasion"
- UltraViolence 5y agoMaintenance does not preclude relocating an airplane. It wasn't taken apart to such an extend that it couldn't fly or it could've been made to fly if need be.
- skjoldr 5y agoYou know nothing about the extent to which it was or was not taken apart or whether it was cleared to fly. Stop.
- UltraViolence 5y agoAnd neither do you! What I do know that in an emergency a plane can be made to fly pretty quickly, unless it's been completely taken apart.
- fuoqi 5y agoIt's not clear whether it truly was destroyed by Russian airstrikes. The plane was based on the Gostomel airport, which got captured by the Russian airborn forces in the early days of the invasion. The news of destruction begun after the Ukrainian forces tried to retake the airport.
- Kelteseth 5y agoLooks destroyed to me: https://img.pr0gramm.com/2022/03/04/1d4413a6ea3e5d8a.jpg https://img.pr0gramm.com/2022/03/04/1d4413a6ea3e5d8a.jpg Edit: I misread your comment...
- fuoqi 5y agoWhat? Where did I say that it was not destroyed? My point is that it's quite possible that it was destroyed by Ukrainian artillery strikes which supported counter-attack on the Gostomel airport.
- qeternity 5y agoI think most people would consider it destroyed by Russia, even if it were Ukrainian artillery that actually struck.
- dtech 5y agoDestroyed due to the Russian invasion would be better then.
- unmole 5y agoSure, but saying destroyed by Russian airstrikes like the article would be inaccurate.
- efdee 5y agoIn the way that you don't die from a bullet, but rather from your body's reaction to the abrupt entering of that bullet in its perimeter.
- zttg 5y ago
- CorrectHorseBat 5y agoThey could have done the airstrike before they captured the airport
- waffleiron 5y agoUkraine confirmed Russian forces were in control of the airport at the 25th. There is satellite evidence that on the 26 (9:06:15 UTC) [1] the hangar wasn't hit yet. That doesn't mean it was the Ukrainians though, but it definitely did happen while the airport was under Russian occupation. [1] https://apps.sentinel-hub.com/sentinel-playground/?source=S2L2A&lat=50.592745688093586&lng=30.2093768119812&zoom=16&preset=1_TRUE_COLOR&layers=B01,B02,B03&maxcc=100&gain=1.0&gamma=1.0&time=2021-08-01%7C2022-02-26&atmFilter=&showDates=true&showImage https://apps.sentinel-hub.com/sentinel-playground/?source=S2...
- gonesilent 5y agois a Chinese company actively casting new parts for the unfinished airframe from what I understand it also has drawings.
- lordnacho 5y agoHow does type rating work for this one off kind of plane? How do you get hours in the one plane, and is there a simulator? Also what do you do when the plane you're rated for is destroyed?
- OJFord 5y ago> Also what do you do when the plane you're rated for is destroyed? Presumably there are numerous other reasons you already wouldn't want it to be the only plane you were flying, so you just fly the others a bit more?
- bluGill 5y agoEven in the unlikely event you only were rated for it, you just do a bit of training and get another rating. How much training depends on the target, some need more than others.
- masklinn 5y agoMriya’s crew were definitely rated for other planes (almost certainly the An-124 it was derived from for instance): Mriya was expensive to fly, and you’d only charter if if you really needed its lifting capabilities (whether weight or volume). It would not be flying year-round in the first place, so you’d want multiple crew rated for it (so one would be available when an order came in) but you wouldn’t want those crews sitting around with their thumbs up their asses all year. For people looking at it from afar it was an amazing sight, but I expect for the crew it was mostly monday. If you listen at their ATC transmissions they sound jaded and bored even for slavic pilots (whereas ATC and other pilots nearby sound like kids at candy store). I don’t know if the price sheets were ever public, but it would not surprise me to learn that you could charter two 124s for the price of the 225, with more flexibility to boot (the 225 had no rear cargo door, no passenger compartment, and obviously more concerning airfield size requirements — mostly owing to its size and takeoff distance, the landing gear is so overbuilt it’s supposedly got a pretty light ground pressure compared to other large aircrafts).
- lbriner 5y ago
- mlac 5y agoI posted this comment on a less popular thread a few days ago: I had the luck of seeing this plane on approach to IAH airport while driving in Houston. For the first few minutes, it looked like a normal size plane, but felt too low and too slow. Then for the next few minutes, it kept getting bigger and bigger. Then I saw it had 6 engines. And a tail wing that seemed as large as a normal plane’s wingspan. I was lucky that it crossed right in front of me as I was near the airport (about 2.5 miles from the runway). It looked so low, so slow, and just massive. I went home and figured out what it was by googling it. That time it was transporting part of an oil rig. I tried to find it to go see again ever since, but I could never get a clear schedule and it didn’t line up with where I was in the world. I was telling my wife the other week that this was something I’d like to seek out. It’s something that anyone on this site, aviation enthusiast or not, would have appreciated seeing.
- rootusrootus 5y agoI can only imagine. Once in a while an An-124 will fly over my house (I'm pretty close to the typical pattern entry for an international airport, so I see a lot of airliners go by at 5-6K feet). It seems fairly impressive, but it's nothing compared to that An-225.
- msandford 5y agoI saw it taking off and climbing out of Houston on my way to go sailing with a friend so I was headed to clear lake. It was just all wrong, it was clearly an airplane headed away from me but it didn't move! It just hung in the sky as if suspended by strings. For what seemed like many minutes it just hovered there. Eventually it started a turn and it started to make a little more sense.
- waffleiron 5y agoI was lucky enough to see her in 2020, when she delivered medical supplies from China to Poland. I lived around 3 km from Chopin airport, and seeing the An-225 gave me the same feeling as seeing a 747 for the first time, up close at an airport after having only flown A320's and smaller. I recently (Dec 2021) saw another really cool plane at the same airport, the Airbus Beluga [1]. [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airbus_Beluga https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airbus_Beluga
- verisimi 5y agoI was confused about this. I presumed Antonov Airlines was a Russian airline, so I was wondering why the Russians would destroy their own planes. But Antonov Airlines is a Ukrainian company: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonov_Airlines https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonov_Airlines The plane was designed in Soviet (Russian) Ukraine (ie before 1991) to carry the Soviet (Russian) space shuttle. edited to say Soviet, not Russian
- supreme_berry 5y agoWhat is Russian Ukraine? How old are you?
- rootusrootus 5y agoTo be fair, it was pretty common to refer to the Soviets as Russians, even if not strictly accurate. Though I don't think I'd ever phrase it as Russian Ukraine if I were writing it out.
- maw 5y agoPretty sure verisimi meant to say "Soviet Ukraine".
- verisimi 5y agoThat would be fine too - probably better
- verisimi 5y agoBefore Ukraine became an independent country in 1991, it was part of the USSR. The plane and space shuttle etc were part of the USSR. I'm using the term 'Russian Ukraine' because it describes the fact that it was part of the USSR when created. Its not my own term - I read this earlier today, and I think it indicates the placement in time accurately. Do you object to the term 'Russian Ukraine'? And what does my age have to do with it? How old are you? Edited to say - 'Soviet Ukraine' is probably an even better term.
- 5y ago
- osynavets 5y agoJust give us some time to win this war and we'll do another one :)
- blahpro 5y agoNothing compared to loss of life and suffering of the Ukrainian people of course, but: this is sad. From the article: "It will cost over USD3 billion to restore the plane [...]". This seems extremely high. I'd expect maybe high hundreds of millions. I appreciate that they're hardly like-for-like, but the A380 unit cost was something like $400M, which I think has maybe double the tonnage of the An-225. Where does the extra couple of billion come from?
- my123 5y agoNo production lines versus relatively high volume manufacturing.
- leoedin 5y agoThe A380 is $400m per plane coming off a production line. The total programme cost for the A380 is something like $30bn. There was only one An-225 built, and it was built 34 years ago. Presumably the tooling and much of the manufacturing knowledge is long gone. Antonov as an aircraft manufacturer was barely a going concern before all this - it's fallen a long way from its Soviet heyday. They haven't built a single aircraft since 2016 - and I can't imagine having a battle fought at your main facility helped things. Making one of something always costs a lot more than making many.
- wheresmycraisin 5y agoI think this is the plane that helped japan during the fukushima disaster by delivering extremely heavy machinery (pumps?). Rest in peace :-(
- Iwan-Zotow 5y ago
- Aldipower 5y agoEven is this is true, without Russian invasion, there would be no need for Ukrainian shells barrage.
- MomoXenosaga 5y agoYep, getting tired of these Russian propaganda agents. Hope they all get on put on a list to make sure they will never be allowed to claim asylum in the West. Stuck in glorious Russia forever.
- bpodgursky 5y agoYeah, even if it was true, it means the Russian paratroopers were using the hangar as shelter from Ukrainian counterattacks after they violently seized the airport. (my understanding is all these paratroopers were shortly eliminated, so it was a huge waste of life all around)
- Iwan-Zotow 5y agoAluminum hangar as a shelter? From artillery?!? Ukrainians just shelled the area, some shells hit hangar with the plane. > my understanding is all these paratroopers were shortly eliminated, so it was a huge waste of life all around Huh?!? How come Russian TV 1st channel were translating from Gostomel, with display of battlefield, broken hangar, burning An-225, ...? Do you think UA army would allow (only) Russian reporters there?
- bpodgursky 5y agoYes, the Russians ended up in control of it after the armored column arrived a day or two later.
- 5y ago
- 0F 5y agoEveryone loses when it comes to war
- JSeymourATL 5y agoRelated: AN-225 in Oklahoma City (1990) > https://youtu.be/eDEC66kam34 https://youtu.be/eDEC66kam34
- KMnO4 5y agoDoes anyone know why this will cost "over USD$3 Billion to restore"? The entire aircraft costs approximately $300 million, so I would have expected a number less than or equal to that. Even the B-2 Spirit bomber, most likely the most expensive aircraft only costs $2.1 billion.
- chunkyks 5y agoAll the tooling, manufacturing, everything for the b2 is gone. They made twenty something, then converted the factories to other things. So whatever the sticker associated with one b2 is, the replacement cost is much higher because you have to include redevelopment, new tooling, everything.
- sheepybloke 5y agoExactly. Since the Antonov was built before the Soviet Union fell, I wouldn't be surprised if none of that exists for this plane as well, and will take a lot of resources to build it back up.
- esaym 5y agoBecause it looks pretty screwed up: https://i.imgur.com/idYr7br.png https://i.imgur.com/idYr7br.png
- chaoticmass 5y agoI can't read the article right now-- are they seriously talking about restoring, as in repairing it? I'd think it would be a total loss and not possible to 'restore'.
- xendo 5y agoAN-225 landing in Rzeszow Jasionka Airport (Poland) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HIddtgGzDE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HIddtgGzDE
- gcanyon 5y agoAs a Guinness Book of World Records kid, from the U.S., and disappointed back in the day that we didn’t have the biggest plane, I’m stunned to find out this thing was unique and effectively a one-off.
- mkhpalm 5y agoI've never gotten the image out of my head every time I see the AN-225 that its missing its Russian space shuttle on its back. Also strange that Soviet Russia built it only for Russian Federation to destroy it. But after Ukraine saved it from the same fate that fell on almost all the other equipment from the Buran program.
- mikl 5y ago> "It will cost over USD3 billion to restore the plane, the restoration shall be time-consuming. Ukraine will make every effort to ensure that the aggressor state pays for these works," And if you believe that will happen, I have a bridge to sell you… There’s a lot of ways this war can go, but that it should somehow end with Russia paying reparations to Ukraine is rather unlikely. And that the Ukrainian government would then spend a fortune of those (badly needed) reparations to build a new An-225 is even less likely.