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The AN-225: How the Cold War created the world's largest airplane

cnn.com

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Re: The AN-225: How the Cold War created the world's largest airplane

#61

Post by nuccy »

Slump wrote: post #14

"...20 tons of fuel per hour..." holy cow. Pretty impressive statistics all around, apparently the A380 uses closer to 12.5 tons per hour to put it in perspective.

Few facts from the excellent An-225 pilot interview and the plane tour video [1] put by @prehistoricdog in this comment section:

- The plane, when empty, can fly for about 16 hours without refueling covering about 13000 km

- Cruise speed is 800 km/h (maximum 840 km/h)

- Fully fueled plane can include 350-370 m.tons of kerosene (around 450000 liters)

- When empty it consumes 16 m.tons of fuel every hour, when fully loaded with cargo - 22 m.tons/h

- The weight of the plane is 290 m.tons (with all the cargo loading equipment and spares carried along)

- There are 35 seats and 20 beds for crew, engineers and cargo escort personnel

- Important for plane spotter, I guess :) Right before departure, at the beginning of a runway, the plane always stays for 4 minutes stationary with engines running at 70% thrust to heat them up, which is imposed by their manufacturer

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TX9L62_Eac (in russian with english subs)

Re: The AN-225: How the Cold War created the world's largest airplane

#62

Post by nitrogen »

TomMarius wrote: post #24
naivedevops wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The uploader has not made this video available in your country"

Having countries matter on the internet now feels like going back to the 90's after living in the future for a while. :/

The 90s Internet didn't have deliberate region blocks. The future is old, and it is dying.

Re: The AN-225: How the Cold War created the world's largest airplane

#63

Post by nitrogen »

jjoonathan wrote: post #58
Slump wrote: post #14

"...20 tons of fuel per hour..." holy cow. Pretty impressive statistics all around, apparently the A380 uses closer to 12.5 tons per hour to put it in perspective.

Saturn V: 20 tons of fuel per second. Yes, it's a silly comparison, but also fun.

The pumps alone that can deliver that volume are an engineering marvel

Re: The AN-225: How the Cold War created the world's largest airplane

#64

Post by scottlocklin »

Jeez CNN is really terrible. The Myasishchev VM-T didn't "carry the spacecraft unassembled" as anyone with eyes can plainly see, and the AN-225 was designed as a replacement for the VM-T (and, truth be told, as a sort of stunt).

https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/aviation/a30930668...

Re: The AN-225: How the Cold War created the world's largest airplane

#65

Post by strictnein »

major505 wrote: post #19

2 years ago they landed this plane here in Brazil, when they camt to pick hidroeletrical generator parts. I gone with a plane enthusiast friend to see the thing take off. I know the phisics, but amazes me that something that big can fly. Theres hope that more of this are made in the next years. It looks like China is interested in making a few units;

Seeing it take off is really something. I used to work on the grounds of an international airport, and one of these flew in one day to pick up a crane or something.

It dwarfed the other planes, 747s included. And seeing it slowly rumbled down the runway gave you the impression that there was simply no way it would have enough speed by the time it reached the end, but somehow it lifted off and flew.

Re: The AN-225: How the Cold War created the world's largest airplane

#66

Post by artificial »

nitrogen wrote: post #62
TomMarius wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having countries matter on the internet now feels like going back to the 90's after living in the future for a while. :/

The 90s Internet didn't have deliberate region blocks. The future is old, and it is dying.

While the connection speeds of today are hard to give up, I liked having oceans of smaller sites instead of a handful of larger ones with content shared from the others. http://c0rk.tripod.com

Re: The AN-225: How the Cold War created the world's largest airplane

#67

Post by _ph_ »

scottlocklin wrote: post #64

Jeez CNN is really terrible. The Myasishchev VM-T didn't "carry the spacecraft unassembled" as anyone with eyes can plainly see, and the AN-225 was designed as a replacement for the VM-T (and, truth be told, as a sort of stunt). https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/aviation/a30930668...

In the linked article the image clearly shows, the Buran was not fully assembled. For example the vertical tail rudder was missing, and probably a lot of other things which might have decreased the weight of the Buran.

Re: The AN-225: How the Cold War created the world's largest airplane

#68

Post by rob74 »

scottlocklin wrote: post #64

Jeez CNN is really terrible. The Myasishchev VM-T didn't "carry the spacecraft unassembled" as anyone with eyes can plainly see, and the AN-225 was designed as a replacement for the VM-T (and, truth be told, as a sort of stunt). https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/aviation/a30930668...

Well, the plane shown in the first photo is clearly carrying an incomplete spacecraft. To find out that it was in fact able to carry the completely assembled Buran, you'd have to actually read the article ("During another flight in 1988 — this time with a flight-worthy Buran orbiter"), and that's probably too much to ask nowadays...

Re: The AN-225: How the Cold War created the world's largest airplane

#69

Post by kd5bjo »

The H-4 Hercules could plausibly be considered larger. It has a larger wingspan, height, and cargo volume, but only ever flew once (for about a mile) and has significantly lower weight capacity. It was also bult several decades before the AN-225.

cf https://www.theaviationzone.com/factsheets/hk1_specs.asp

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