hi everyone welcome back to another episode of mega-projects there's another one about planes because well whenever I do a mega-projects about planes you guys like it so this at all also Soviet planes especially so Soviet plane this video is probably gonna do well is the Antonov two to five I believe it's the biggest plane or it was until very recently the biggest plane anyway we're gonna dive into all sorts of details today so sit tight fasten your seat belts all of that plane stuff and let's get into it [Music] [Music] the 30th of November 1988 was the day the world was first introduced to a true monster of an aircraft it was so large that it famously couldn't fit inside its designated hangar with the plane's tail section protruding rather unceremoniously outside what had been constructed remains to this day the heaviest aircraft of the world has ever seen and it only very recently lost its mantle as the largest plane in the world just out further prestige only one of these beasts was ever built yes today this is the story of the gigantic the Titanic which is the video we've got coming out very shortly by the way Antonov 2 to 5 when the 2 to 5 lifted into the skies for the first time the following year in 1989 it apparently broke 109 world records ranging from its size to its payload capacity and well countless more it was truly a revolutionary plane but even more astonishing Lee is that it continues to shatter records to this day decades later in April 2020 the N 2 to 5 was used to ship medical supplies from China to Europe during which it transported 1,000 cubic meters of cargo the largest volume ever transported by air this is this wonderful simplicity to the 2g5 it is after all simply just a cargo plane it's not fast it's not technically complex but it is just enormous and it's certainly one of the few aircrafts that has a cult following in May 2016 over 15,000 people gathered at Perth Airport in Western Australia to witness this Goliath land and yet what it does now is not all it was originally designed to do by the early 1980s the Russian Space Agency was under a bit of pressure the rampant need to keep up with the American space shuttle program had pushed it to its absolute limits political pressure up meant that the desire for bigger and better was just more intense than ever their response was the Burin space shuttle a space shuttle that looked really really similar to what was being built in the United States but we don't have time to go into that today if you'd like me to cover the Russian space shuttle in the future or let me know in the comments below maybe we could do like a Concorde Concorde ski video like we did previously sort of a two-parter let me know use the comments if people like it I will do it the problem the Russians had was how to transport their version of the shuttle the Soviet launch site was the Baikonur cosmodrome in modern-day Kazakhstan a quick check of a map will reveal that the cosmodrome is thousands of miles away from any seaport the Soviets racked their brains over transportation mulling over road and rail links that the isolated location meant that whatever blasted off from Baikonur needed to be flown there first at the time the Soviet Union didn't have any aircraft even remotely capable of lugging the 62 ton Buuren shuttle the new MIG 26 helicopter was capable of lifting 26 tons but test flights had proven hazardous and any notion of using helicopters to move the shuttle or was scrapped instead they focused on an existing aircraft the Antonov one-to-four Ruslan and how that design could be modified and extended the ones who for itself was an enormous aircraft capable of transporting a hundred and fifty tons inside its cargo holds and while it could accommodate the weight of the Burin it just couldn't fit inside a new purpose-built aircraft would be neat than the planning stage of what was codenamed article 400 got underway at the Antonov design bureau in Kiev in 1985 an official order came down from the Soviet Ministry of Defense for a single version of what would go on to be the 2:00 to 5:00 the brief was to stay as close to the 1:00 to 4:00 Ruslan as possible which was all well and good apart from you know the considerable size increase some significant structural changes were made between the two aircraft the central section of the 2g5 was expanded to accommodate six engines rather than four the number of landing gear assemblies situated on the fuselage was increased from 10 to 16 with the last row of wheels altered to allow for steering on the runway in total the 2 to 5 would have 32 individual wheels it really doesn't sound like they're just making something bigger it sounds like an entirely new aircraft doesn't it balancing such a vast aircraft was always going to be tricky in response the fuselage of the two to five was stretched 8 meters 26 feet compared to the 1 to 4 but the aft section was shortened by one meter to provide better balance now you might notice that it also comes with this twin tail the aircraft was not specifically designed to carry cargo inside instead the shuttle would be strapped to the back of the aircraft piggyback style with such a bulky external load the twin tail was seen as vital to keep the aircraft balanced the Ministry of Defence had given Antonov two years to complete the plane but delays meant that it took twice as long there is always so vast that Antonov didn't even have a hangar large enough to fit it parts being delivered and to be timed perfectly because there was just simply nowhere to keep them on site a second two to five was started sometime in the late 1980s but it was never finished due to the collapse of the USSR and its skeleton form remains in a warehouse outside Kiev to this day there has been some talk about finishing this aircraft and we'll get to that a little bit later on in today's video unsurprisingly for such a record-breaker the vital statistics of this aircraft are extraordinary at 84 meters it's the longest aircraft ever constructed if you've been following along with mega-projects you might have seen the one we did about the ekranoplan ground effect vehicle also built by the soviets if you haven't check it out it's probably gonna be a link below if there's not I forgot I'm sorry this was actually slightly longer but it was only designed to fly 5 to 10 meters above the water and it wasn't even technically an aircraft the 2 t5 has a colossal wingspan of 88.4 meters across fourteen point nine meters longer than the one to forum which was models only the strata launcher which flew for the first time in 2019 has a larger wingspan of 117 meters how it uses h4 Hercules again which we've covered previously on this channel had a wingspan of ninety seven point eight meters but considering it only flew once for just a mile above the water I'm not sure we can really count it although that is definitely gonna draw heat in the comments these wings give the two to five a wing area of nine hundred and five square meters the size of about three and a half tennis courts if this aircraft wasn't ready in a league of its own just take a look at its cargo hold it's capable of transporting 1,300 cubic meters roughly half an Olympic sized swimming pool in terms of physical size the cargo hold is six point four meters wide four point four meters high and forty three point three five meters long which incidentally is longer than the first Wright brothers total flight that took place in 1903 as I mentioned earlier this is the heaviest aircraft in the world at 285 tons and as a maximum takeoff weight of 640 tons which is around five and a half blue whales the aircraft is powered with six turbofan engines providing it with just over 300 thousand pounds of thrust and a maximum speed of 530 miles per hour its service ceiling is 11 thousand meters 36,000 feet which is 2,100 meters lower than that of an Airbus a380 it also comes with a fuel capacity of 90,000 361 gallons which is 8,000 gallons more than an a380 per with this fuel capacity it has about the same range if you're looking for a real world map comparison that's about the distance from the United Kingdom to American Samoa in the Pacific the antonov 25 first appeared on the 30th of November 1988 at a ceremony attended by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev this was a delicate time in the Soviet Union and although the Union still very much existed there was an increasing liberalisation in terms of regional identity the appearance of the two to five was the perfect example of this as it was christened with a name Maria which means dream in Ukranian this was the first time that a Soviet aircraft had been designated with a Ukrainian name on the 21st of December 1988 the 2:00 to 5:00 lifted into the air for the first time with test pilot Alexander Gulen nkow at the helm and the records came crashing down however political upheaval meant that the 225 was entering a very different world considering that the two to five was built to transport the Burin space shuttle it unfortunately just arrived a little bit late the Burin had completed its first flight in 1988 but things were becoming increasingly shaky within the soviet union at this time and the expensive program was finally scrapped in 1993 after three years in limbo due to funding problems the two t5 did participate in a test flight with the Burin shuttle on the 13th of May 1989 which included a stop at the Paris Air Show where the crowd gazed in rapture at the enormous aircraft with a space shuttle straps to its back it was an astonishing sight but it would be the last time the shuttle and the 2g5 would be used together the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 left numerous projects unfinished or surplus to requirements the question of what to do with the t25 once it became clear the Burin program was doomed with a bit of a tricky one it was almost a victim of its own size at this point with smaller aircrafts more often suitable for use there simply wasn't much need for the kind of vast size that the t25 brought in 1991 it visited the United States for the first time to pick up humanitarian aid designated for the victims of the Chernobyl disaster however the plane experienced a catalogue of problems on this particular journey so serious that authorities made the decision to ground the plane and it wouldn't take off again for another eight years Antonov Airlines had been set up in the late 1980s as the Soviet Union looked to monetize much of their military hardware the company used some of the one two fours but by the end of the 1990s it was clear that something larger was needed unfortunately while they had just the thing lying in storage The Forgotten Beast of the skies appeared once again in 2001 with new engines and now modified for heavy cargo inside on the 11th of September 2001 the plane lifted off for a trial run carrying four battle tanks having a flight cargo record weight of 200 53.82 tons and while it never looked back today the one and only two two five is used for large cargo transportation all over the world costing in the region of an eye-watering at thirty thousand dollars an hour well I suppose you yeah well you pay for on that one in January 2002 it was used to transport two hundred and sixteen military meals for American personnel in the gulf from stuttgart in germany to some rate in amman this vast quantity took up 375 pallets and weighed a hundred and eighty seven point five tons then in 2009 it transported the heaviest single cargo item ever to takeoff generator to be used in a gas power plant in armenia which weighed 189 tons it also carried the longest piece of air cargo ever to be transported by plane in June 2010 to 41 point one meter wind turbine blades moved from tire gin in China to Denmark according to Antonov themselves the two t5 holds or at one time held 224 separate world records across its 31 year history mostly relating to its cargo today the Antonov 24 is often used to move enormous amounts of humanitarian supplies and has most recently been involved in flights to transport personal protective equipment during the covert 19 crisis with the first flight of the strata launch in 2019 some of the 2t 5s records have fallen but it is a testament to this gigantic workhorse of a plane that it took 30 years to do so however still it doesn't look like this plane is gonna be going anywhere anytime soon it would appear there have also been some serious considerations about finally completing the second two to five which according to reports is currently between 60 and 70 percent complete the message is very long mixed here with the Chinese government claiming they want to use it as an air launch to orbit platform for commercial satellites in 2016 seems that an agreement had been reached between Antonov and AICC an import-export company in Hong Kong to recommence production on the two g5 however this has now been stalled potentially over the issue of procuring parts from Russia one day the sole to t5 may be joined in the air by its younger sibling but until then we'll have to marvel at this single aircraft which Antonov has stated is scheduled to remain in operation until 2033 if it does indeed make it it will be 44 years old like many pieces of military equipment that emerged from the Cold War the Antonov to g5 was all about size yes what marks it out is that it has very much found a place in the 21st century while others have not it is probably one of the more unglamorous record breakers that you're ever likely to meet enormous bulky not much to look at in terms of shape and yet there is something spellbinding about the two to five what should it in action you're reminded about the extraordinary progress that has been made in aviation don't forget it was just a hundred and thirteen years ago that we first began this aeronautic adventure on a rickety wobbly flight with the Wright brothers the two t5 is a reminder that not only do we have the audacity to go and define gravity but that we can do it in the most extraordinary fashion so I really hope you found that video interesting if you did please do hit that thumbs up button below don't forget to subscribe brand new videos just like this a couple of times a week right now let me know your suggestions in the comments below smash that like button if you enjoyed this video subscribe all of that stuff and I'll see you next time [Music] [Music]
