It's Time for Antonov To Build More An-225's.

here's a little aviation experiment that you can try at home go ahead and ask a friend or family member what they think the world's biggest plane is unless they're an aircraft aficionado I bet that most of them will come to the same conclusion the Airbus a380 and you couldn't really blame them for reaching that conclusion the a380 is an absolute beast not only does it have the largest capacity of any commercial airliner carrying over 500 passengers with ease but it's also the only commercial jet that's a true double-decker but the a380 isn't the world's biggest plane and it's not even all that close compared to the plane that does hold the title the a380 actually looks downright puny so what exactly is this behemoth of a plane and why have it more people heard of it let me explain now for us to really understand the world's biggest jet and why it exists we're gonna have to open up the history books and take a closer look at the Cold War the space race was arguably the defining battle of that era with the Americans and Soviets squaring off to see who could put a man on the moon first the general public was enthralled by this high-stakes competition and there was much celebration when the Apollo 11 astronauts successfully touched down on the moon surface in 1969 but the fanfare was soon replaced by apathy and public interest in space flight began to fade NASA's Apollo missions were cut short while 10 were originally planned only 7 actually took place things were even worse on the Soviet side efforts to reach the moon were completely abandoned after their n1 moon rocket failed to reach orbit on four consecutive test flights but even with interest waning and budgets fading the space race didn't really end it just moved into a new more tactical phase the Cold War was still very much alive and both sides were keen on advancing surveillance capabilities as such their attention was now focused on placing fleets of military and spy satellites into low Earth orbit in addition to building new space stations from which research could be conducted achieving these goals would require the development of new rapidly reusable spacecraft the existing moon Rockets were too big too expensive and took too long to build to effectively carry out these missions the Americans ended up designing the famed space shuttle to do the work while the Soviets developed the lesser-known boron oddly enough both launch platforms looked remarkably similar to one another I'm not gonna say who copied who but the key takeaway is that they both built space planks all of a sudden both sides have reusable vehicles that could drive down cost as funny for spaceflight continue to shrink the problem with these platforms though is that neither could actually function like a normal airplane would even if they wanted to the space shuttles rs.25 engines were absolute gas guzzlers meaning it had to be strapped to a massive external fuel tank and a pair of solid rocket motors to reach orbit even then it burned through its fuel reserves in just a matter of minutes the Bron on the other hand only had orbital maneuvering engines meaning it had no way to produce meaningful levels of thrust on its own rather it had to hitch ride the space on the back of Russia's new and there'd be a rocket altom utley this meant that while both space planes could come in and land on a normal runway they couldn't take off under their own powder this presented a logistical problem because these orbiters didn't always come back and land at their original launch site this actually happened quite often with the space shuttle in total the shuttle made 54 landings at Edwards Air Force Base in California about 2,500 miles away from its launch complex in Cape Canaveral Florida without a way to relocate these vehicles they would essentially remain stranded as such both the US and USSR had to come up with innovative ways to transport them over large distances transporting them on roads was a non-starter since both crafts had wide wing spans that would be prone to clipping objects like trees and light poles further transporting them via boat proved to be too limiting and too slow the only viable solution was by air so each country developed air transport systems to move these massive machines nasa's solution involves taking a 747 and re-engineering it to carry the space shuttle on its back the soviets took a similar approach but rather than repurpose an existing airplane for the job they built an all-new aircraft that plane was the an-225 mriya Miriam meaning dream in Ukranian and you guessed it it's the world's biggest plane now I want to throw some numbers at you to help you appreciate just how gargantuan this plane really is the a and 225 is two hundred seventy six feet nose to tail nearly the length of an American football field it's 60 feet tall the height of a six story building it's got a wingspan that's 290 feet tip to tip almost three times longer than that of an a320 it's got 32 wheels in its landing gear assembly ten more than what the a380 has and it's got six turbofan engines producing over 300 thousand pounds of thrust at max takeoff setting these numbers are staggering but there's one final figure that might help to explain why you've never heard of this plane one there was only one an-225 ever built you see the Braun was a victim of bad timing it was an incredibly capable space plane and in many ways was actually more advanced than the space shuttle but the Soviet Union collapsed shortly after the bronze first orbital flight in 1988 funding for space missions completely disappeared and while the barong program was never officially cancelled the spacecraft never flew again as a result the an-225 s primary use case was no longer viable but rather than be tossed on the scrap heap the an-225 was repurposed after sitting idle for a few years its engines were swapped out and it underwent substantial heavy lift modifications in order to make it a cargo jet and because of its sheer size it's been able to do some pretty remarkable things in that role and even holds several World Records for instance it holds the record for the heaviest piece of Air Cargo ever delivered the longest piece of air cargo ever delivered and the heaviest total payload ever carry it's also been a boon for disaster relief efforts playing a critical role in getting massive quantities of supplies to areas of need most recently it's played a critical role in the fight against covin 19 by delivering medical supplies from China to the rest of the world you can pretty easily make the case that the 225 has been even more productive in its second life and because of that there's long been an effort to build more back in 2006 the Antonov company greenlit the production of a second unit however thanks to financing and sourcing issues the build process has been mothballed for years and program ownership has changed several times as it stands today that second and 225 sits at about 60% completion and a hangar on the outskirts of Kiev it remains uncertain whether or not that second unit will ever be completed Antonov insists that even though the plane has been sitting idle for quite some time it remains in mint condition however it's estimated that finishing the project would cost a whopping 300 million dollars money that Antonov simply doesn't have now there has been outside interest in helping to complete the project primarily from Chinese investors and even a little bit of interest from Boeing but logistical and manufacturing issues still stand in the way of its completion regardless of whether or not the second unit has ever complete the one that is in operation today will likely stay in operation for years to come the plane is now over 30 years old which for most aircraft is ancient but since the 225 has a niche purpose and doesn't fly all that often it's a lot less expensive to maintain than you might imagine when you pair that with its immaculate safety record there is simply no reason tottering retirement despite its advanced stage now there have been a few challengers in recent years - the title of world's largest plane most notable of which is a straddle launch this funky-looking jet is designed to launch hypersonic test planes and rockets similar to the Virgin orbits 747 that I covered in a recent video while this plane does have a wingspan that 60% bigger than the 225 it's also shorter in length and has a slightly lower payload capacity but what's most important though is that the Strada launch isn't operational while the 225 has been flying carb emissions for years the Strada launch has only conducted a single test plane what's more there's been a constant stream of rumors that Strada launches on the brink of shutting down and selling off its IP regardless of whether or not strata launch fails it's undeniable that the 225 has succeeded what could have been just a relic of a failed space program has reinvented itself to become one of the most unique and important aircraft flying today and it's very much deserving of the title of the world's largest plane so what's the biggest plane that you guys have ever seen in person I personally have not seen the an-225 but I have seen its little brother at the an-124 that plane is closer in size to a 747 which is still huge but apparently it still pales in comparison to the 225 oh and for those eagle-eyed folks out there yes the plane in the thumbnail is an am 124 not in a and 225 they do look very similar though so good work in recognizing the difference thanks so much to my patrons for making this video possible and as always if you learn something new today leave a like and subscribe to keep learning and till I see you again don't forget to look up you

Channel: Coby Explanes

Views: 247,773

Keywords: antonov, a380, an225, an124, space shuttle, buran, space shuttle 747, space shuttle piggyback, big plane, biggest plane, aviation, Boeing, Airbus, 747

Id: 6SBBAb-U18A

Length: 11min 11sec (671 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 11 2020