Antonov An-225 Mriya

The Antonov An-225 Mriya ^[a] was a Soviet Aircraft, and the largest airplane by weight in the world. It needed 6 engines because it was very large. It was made by a company called Antonov. The Mriya was designed to carry the Russian Shuttle, Space Shuttle Buran. The Buran only flew once, and was successful. However, the funding of Buran was insufficient, and the project quickly ended. The remaining plane, registration UR-82060, was used to carry very large items that were not efficient to carry by train.

Antonov An-225 Mriya
The An-225 in its old livery, Circa. 2012
Role	Buran Carrier, Cargo Transport
National origin	Soviet Union
Design group	Antonov
Built by	Antonov Serial Production Plant
First flight	21 December 1988
Retired	February 5th, 2022
Status	Destroyed
Primary user	Antonov Airlines
Produced	1985
Number built	2, one as UR-82060, the other, uncompleted.
Unit cost	250 Million USD- 300 Million USD
Developed from	Antonov An-124

The An-225 leaves six vapour trails. That is one for each engine.

The company ownership changed because of the collapse of the Soviet Union. The ownership of Antonov changed to the country of Ukraine, and all assets were taken to Kyiv. It was modelled from the Antonov An-124 Ruslan. This plane was big enough to carry a Boeing 747's fuselage. During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the last aircraft, UR-82060, was destroyed in the hangar of the airport of the Antonov Serial Production Plant in Ukraine.

Notes

1. Ukrainian: Антонов Ан-225 Мрія, lit. 'dream' or 'inspiration', NATO reporting name: "Cossack"