Courtesy of The Feral Irishman, here's video shot from a drone showing the late, lamented sole example of the Antonov An-225 Mriya taking off from Kyiv in Ukraine a few years ago. I don't know whether any permission was given for filming so close to the flight path; I have to presume not - but the result was extraordinary. The world's largest aircraft went by the drone at a distance that can't have been more than a couple of hundred yards. Watch in full-screen mode for best results. (Don't adjust the volume - there's no sound.)
The An-225, the only one of its kind, was destroyed early last year during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Antonov has on hand another partly-built airframe that was never completed, and has vowed to finish it and fly it as a memorial to the giant aircraft (and as a raised aviation finger to the Russians). I'm not sure that'll be a worthwhile exercise in economic terms, but I daresay it's a point of national pride to Ukraine.
Peter
That plane was an engineering feat to be sure and it is a shame it was destroyed on the ground.
ReplyDeleteIt is just one more thing to lament about this avoidable conflict
I'm just a light-plane pilot with no aeronautical engineering background (fer sure!) but that bird looks woefully underpowered.
ReplyDeleteIt appears that way, under powered, because it is HUGE. I think those engines can have a man stand in them as I recall.
ReplyDeleteI used to watch C5s take off from Moffett when it was still a Navy base. They just lumbered along the runway until it seemed to simply float off the ground. Impressive plane - the AN225 must have been even more amazing to watch.
ReplyDeleteThere is very little turbulence caused buffeting of the drone.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it happened after the big beast passed.
Saw it IRL when the Army hired it to do an emergency resupply of us in Baghdad in 2004. That was when the roads went all 'red' as in shut down due to the IEDs being sooooooo bad and no one was expecting THAT level of insurgency. We started getting short on 'stuff' like rations and whatnot, so they contracted with the Kraine to do a resupply.
ReplyDeleteONE planeload brought in enough stuff to supply us for like 3 months of Ops. Like try 200 TONS of 'stuff' in ONE mission! (The unloading took quite a bit of time from what I heard)
It took off and landed right over VBC and unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me... TBH it looked like a skyscraper 'grew wings' and decided to fly around for a lil trip over Baghdadland... it was that mo'fuggin' BIG .