"84 meters ... 88 meters ... 250 tons ... 300,000 lbs"
For those wondering:
250 tons = 227 tonnes (227,000 kg)
300,000 lbs = 136 tonnes
Why the second figure wasn't just given as 150 tons I have no idea.
China Will Resurrect the World's Largest Plane
11–20 of 119 posts
Re: China Will Resurrect the World's Largest Plane
#12Writers! Please don't use "exponentially", which has a precise meaning, in place of a more modest word such as "greatly". > "China buying and building An-225s would exponentially increase its power capabilities not just in Asia, but across the world."
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Re: China Will Resurrect the World's Largest Plane
#13Can't see the article. It redirects me to http://www.popsci.com.au/?src=redirect with an error: "Oops! Something went wrong. Please scroll down to find your content."
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Re: China Will Resurrect the World's Largest Plane
#14Can't see the article. It redirects me to http://www.popsci.com.au/?src=redirect with an error: "Oops! Something went wrong. Please scroll down to find your content."
Yeah, strangely this article isn't available on the Australian version of PopSci, but you can't view the US/Intl version from Australia.
If you have an overseas VPN, you'll be able to see this article, or do a Google News search for something like "China AN-225" for other articles on the topic.
Re: China Will Resurrect the World's Largest Plane
#15Can't see the article. It redirects me to http://www.popsci.com.au/?src=redirect with an error: "Oops! Something went wrong. Please scroll down to find your content."
Yes, it's a super dumb redirect on their side - the US Pop Science redirects to the Australian Pop Science which does not have the same content because the AUS Pop Science licenses the US Pop Science content, but not all of it.
There are Grease Monkey scripts to stop the redirect or use a proxy, it's too much work for me to bother reading their content.
Re: China Will Resurrect the World's Largest Plane
#16So this was originally made to carry the USSR's Buran space-shuttle-like project. I'd never heard of Buran before, but I have heard many critiques of the US's space shuttle program. Yet Buran looks almost identical from a cursory view.
Why would the Soviet's independently develop a highly flawed project? This article does a decent job answering that: http://www.popularmechanics.com/space/rockets/a9763/did-the-...
Re: China Will Resurrect the World's Largest Plane
#17Is an aircraft of this size economical, or is it a fuel hog useful only for carrying huge single-piece cargos that smaller aircraft cannot? Is it useful, or is it sheer size-vanity?
Re: China Will Resurrect the World's Largest Plane
#18The AN-225's little brother the AN-124 was once used to fly a diesel locomotive from Canada to Ireland. It worked out cheaper for the train manufacture to pay to have it flown over, and meet the contractural delivery date, rather than shipping it by sea and paying the fine for missing the deadline. https://www.flickr.com/photos/48073612@N04/5124447894
That's pretty interesting! I see that train (or one very much like it) around Connolly station in Dublin when I'm commuting in and out of work.
Re: China Will Resurrect the World's Largest Plane
#19Writers! Please don't use "exponentially", which has a precise meaning, in place of a more modest word such as "greatly". > "China buying and building An-225s would exponentially increase its power capabilities not just in Asia, but across the world."
Maybe the exponent is really small, like 1.01
Re: China Will Resurrect the World's Largest Plane
#20It's obvious to me that China doesn't care that much about the AN-225 design as for the design of the D-18 turbofan. They still can't design or manufacture a heavy turbofan domestically. This has seriously hampered their heavy airlift project (the Y-20, who first flew using Soviet-designed low-bypass 12-ton thrust D-30 fans, which killed its range). The domestic WS-20 turbofan design that was supposed to power the production Y-20 airlifter is still under wraps, which usually means the prototype is not doing well.
Getting access to a 20-ton thrust high-bypass turbofan design is a huge step for them.