The British Are Restoring The AN-226 Mriya For Ukraine

[Music] on december 21 1988 the world's largest and most powerful transport plane the an-225 maria which was made by the antonov cereal production plant flew its first flight by march the next year with a maximum carrying capacity of over 500 tons it had set 106 world records and records for planes in its class [Music] hey guys welcome to our channel today we'll talk about how this giant was made how it died and how it may be reborn so the plane was made to transport components for the energia rocket carrier and for the burn space vessel but by the time the first an-225 was finished all the necessary trips were done by the bmt atlanta plane the an225 only participated in the burn program by transporting the burn to the paris air and space expo and demonstrated several test flights at baikonur after the fall of the soviet union and the energia burm program was closed the only active an225 was placed in a hangar and its engines were removed to be used on the an-124 planes in 1989 a holding company was founded that would provide heavy cargo transport called antonov airlines it was located in kiev and operated from london luton airport in a partnership with airfoil heavy lift [Music] the company began operations with a fleet of four an-124 100s and three an-12s but by the late 1990s it became clear there was a demand for a plane larger than the an-124 considering this demand the unused an-225 was rebuilt modified to transport heavy cargo and made operational again under the ownership of antonov airlines [Music] the maria's first commercial flight was on january 31st 2002 from stuttgart to thumb rate oman with a load of 187 and a half tons of food for american soldiers in the country after that the an225 joined the ranks of the ruslan as a workhorse for antonov airlines thanks to its ability to transport items that had previously been impossible for air transport like locomotives 150 ton generators and more the ability to quickly transport large cargo necessary for the aftermath of natural disasters gave the plane a reputation as a valued aid for humanitarian operations [Music] beginning in july 2003 the an-225 and the an-124s transported over 800 tons of equipment on humanitarian missions to iraq the an-225 was also attractive to the us government to transport military equipment to the middle east to support the un forces [Music] in august 2009 the maria was put into the guinness book of world records for transporting the largest single cargo load in the history of aviation at 187.6 tons it was a generator weighing 174 tons that was transported along with a special frame from frankfurt to uravan for a new armenian power station the plane's crew was given a certificate that said they were put into the guinness book of world records it's worth noting that there were developments at the time to use the plane as a platform to launch spacecraft from one such project was the max air and space system it was a two-step air start system that should have been composed of the an-225 carrier that would carry an orbital plane or cargo container according to calculations it would have substantially lowered the cost of transporting cargo to orbit at the very beginning of russia's full-scale invasion into ukraine an air attack by the russians on the hasta milk airport near kiev destroyed the flagship of ukraine's air force the legendary an-225 maria it was undergoing an engine swap so it was not able to evacuate like other planes it was announced that restoring the largest plane in the world would cost about 3 billion dollars and take a long time in late june ukraine was visited by british billionaire and founder of the company virgin galactic richard branson his goal in visiting ukraine was an aim to see if he could create a business in partnership with the private and public sectors to support ukraine more effectively he met with ukrainian president voldemir selenski and described his experience in the war-torn area as humbling and emotional branson visited the antonov airport with the remains of maria the ukrainian officials accompanying him told him they plan to build a new plane that will set many records after this war also the modernized maria will have modern digital equipment according to parliament member david arkami the british billionaire expressed the desire to help everyone he could branson was also pleasantly shocked by the ukrainian's optimism and that even in these difficult times they still dream of breakthroughs in airplane building additionally during his visit to hostimel he was interested in the possibility to restore the antonov airfield the an225 maria spent 20 000 hours in the air in its 45 years of use this metal bird flew hundreds of humanitarian missions it could have been used until at least 2033. the pilot that flew it called the plane dead like a person not destroyed he remembers how he walked up to it and dingedly said hello and how the crew always rubbed it there is a partially built second an225 in the antonov hangars in 2020 igor flamenco announced a second model of the maria could be finished if it was fully designed the second maria was built alongside the first one however after the soviet union collapsed it was only about 70 percent finished and was put in storage and has been there for about 30 years just standing without wings engines a chassis or tail unit this is the base that is planned to be used in restoring the maria if financing the project is more or less solved there are still problems with the inside of the plane the work required to finish it is extremely extensive pieces to be made include the chassis the onboard electronics the hydraulics the navigation system six engines and much more as far as rebuilding the plane goes it's very complicated it was built in the ussr and those technologies cooperation and experienced specialists that would be needed at every step of building such a unique design are gone antonov had the chance to get an investor in 2018. he had spoken with the chinese company airspace industry corporation of china about modernizing and finishing the second an225 the chinese were ready to finance the project and get the plane and planned on a joint serial production of an225s in china in the second step licensed by antonov however this agreement did not come to fruition if there's enough timely financing building the plane will take several years of course you must understand it isn't a commercial project it's more than that it's a symbol of ukraine's victory and a symbol of the world defeating evil the maria's last flight was part of a parade for ukraine's independence day on august 24th 2021 the plane flew over christianity just 1200 feet in the air according to the planned route the plane flew from the air base in hostimel to the skies over kiev in the tarankov district after its celebratory flight over kreshitique the maria flew over the post plaza metro region then through dunper and the trickenov island then video of the amazing an-225 maria's landing near the hostimel airport appeared online well that's all for today leave a like don't forget to subscribe either comment let me know do you think they should rebuild this plane or not and stick around we have much more to come

Channel: Pandora US

Views: 284,556

Keywords: money, Britain, Branson, AN-225 dream, dream plane, Ukraine, Hostomel, war in Ukraine, billionaire Branson, AN-225 of dreams, plane of dreams, war, Russia, Putin, Zelensky, president of Ukraine, ukraine, vladimir putin, russia ukraine, ukraine russia conflict, russia vs ukraine, russia ukraine news, russia ukraine border, russia ukraine war, antonov an-225 mriya

Id: 3f_41HZB6KU

Length: 9min 16sec (556 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 30 2022