ANTONOV An-225 - How it works - The World's Largest Aircraft/ @Learnfromthebase ​

Video from the channel Learn from the base about Antonov, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 9:22. Language: English. Video type: Documentary.

An explainer piece, with 3D animation, on how the Antonov An-225 Mriya, the largest cargo aircraft ever built, works. It covers the fuselage, the cockpit, the landing gear, the fuel tanks, the cargo hold, the nose-loading procedure and the engines.

The An-225 was conceived to return the Soviet Buran shuttle from its landing site to the Baikonur Cosmodrome. It first flew on 21 December 1988 and, after the end of the space programme, Antonov Airlines converted it into a freighter. Its final mission, from 2 to 5 February 2022, carried Covid-19 tests from Tianjin, China, to Billund, Denmark. It was destroyed in its Hostomel hangar during the battle for Antonov Airport, and in May 2022 President Volodymyr Zelensky announced the intention to rebuild it.

The video credits the aircraft with a capacity of up to 250 tonnes of cargo, a six-person crew (pilot, co-pilot, navigator, radio operator and two flight engineers) and 32-wheel landing gear, with a nose gear that kneels to ease loading. The cargo hold is 43 m long, 6.4 m wide and 4.4 m high, and has an internal crane. It is powered by six Ivchenko-Progress Lotarev D-18T turbofans, each producing 229.5 kN.