Ukrainian plane Mriia celebrates its birthday

On December 21, 1988, the legendary Ukrainian An-225 "Mriia" aircraft made its first flight. The first commander of the crew was test pilot Oleksaner Halunenko.

Already in March 1989, Mriia set 106 world records in one flight with a maximum takeoff weight of over 500 thousand kilograms. And on May 13, 1989, it transported the first orbital spacecraft of the USSR "Buran" from the city of Zhukovsky (near Moscow) to the Baikonur Cosmodrome.

The event when the Mriia with the Buran ship flew to Paris in 1989 was broadcast on central television. For the first time, space tests were demonstrated to such a wide audience.

A month later, the An-225 appeared at the Paris Air Show in Le Bourget; in 1990, at the air show in Farnborough, England. In August 1993, at the MAKS-93 air show (International Aerospace Salon) in Zhukovsky, Mriia "performed" under the Ukrainian blue and yellow flag.

Restored and adapted for commercial use in 2001, Mriia took to the skies after a long downtime because of the closure of the Energy-Buran program. This date is called the second birthday of the An-225.

Initially, it was planned to build two Mriias, but today there is only one copy, which is operated by Antonov Airlines (Ukraine). It provides services for the commercial transportation of heavy and non-standard cargo up to 250 thousand kg.

The second copy was never completed, although information about the possible completion of construction sometimes appears in the press.

In 2021, the world's largest liner took part in a parade dedicated to the Independence Day of Ukraine.

The An-225 Mriia (NATO code name "Cossack") is the largest and most powerful transport aircraft in the world, created by the Kyiv Antonov Design Bureau. The chief designer is Viktor Tolmachev.

The An-225 with a maximum takeoff weight of 640 tons is the heaviest aircraft in the world. For comparison, the third-largest (after the An-124 "Ruslan") American military transport aircraft C-5 Galaxy has a maximum takeoff weight of 381 tons.

The distance covered by the Wright brothers' plane during the first flight is less than the size of the Mriia compartment. This aircraft is also the world's largest aircraft that has taken to the air more than once. The An-124 Ruslan and An-225 are larger than the C-5 Galaxy, which is the largest aircraft in the United States.

In November 2004, the International Aeronautical Federation entered the Guinness Book of World Records for its 240 records.