Antonov An-225 Mriya
Monday, 1st May 2006 by James Turnbull
Parked at Gostomel Airport we find the only completed Antonov An-225 Mriya, which is the world's biggest aircraft! (the American "Spruce Goose" has a larger wingspan, but it only ever flew once, and the Mriya is larger in terms of overall size). Compare its size to those 'normal' planes over to the East.
Originally designed to carry space shuttle as part of the Soviet Space Program the An-225 is now available commercially if you happen to need 250 metric tonnes of stuff carried about the world (5 tanks? 8 buses? 1,500 people?). Alternatively, it can carry up to 200 metric tonnes externally on the specially designed "roof-rack".
There's loads of ground-level pictures showing the six engines and 32 wheels on air and space.com.
Thanks: Al Cohole, Scott Richardson, Eddie & Paul
If it’s been traveling around so much, I don’t suppose there’s any chance it was photographed at any other airports?
Why are all the plaines blurred? Is this the place where the plane was standing some years rotting away before they where restaurating it?
Excellent comparison between a few “Giant Airplanes” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Giant_Plane_Comparison.png
For more pix of this plane visit airliners.net.
http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?aircraft_genericsearch=Antonov%20An-225%20Mriya&distinct_entry=true
How come every plane on here is blurred out? Even markings on the runway are blurred out. Why would the people at google take into consideration the sensitivity of showing foreign military bases yet do not mind showing the United States bases???
Doesnt make sense to me!
I’d bet that the blurry tops of planes have to do with where the images actually come from, and not how they get put into the google database. If they get the images from the russian satellites, then the russians are probably doing the grey out.
they aren’t blurred out. There’s a lot of glare.
It’s also Highly likely that the Russian runways are not as well maintained as the 1’s at most US air Bases..looks like this 1 is made of various different sized squares of concrete as opposed to asphalt..
Someone definitely needs to adjust the contrast, lol. Is the large four engine jet to the southeast an An-124? One of those came to a nearby airport a couple of years ago… From the road, it looked like they added a new terminal, the thing was so big. Check out the matrix of trees further southeast. Some kind of orchard, perhaps?
To me the aircraft have definitely been altered. Looks like someone drew a basic outline around on them in photoshop then applied a blur filter. Nothing similar appears on the buildings or other objects. Likewise all the planes look like that, not parts of them or some of them.
Honestly, it almost looks like they selected the magic wand tool in photoshop, clicked the plane, and either made the selected area white, or pressed delete, depending on what background color was selected. The plane with the camo seems to be the only one spared from this procedure, if that’s indeed what this is. I’ve seen glare before, but we should be able to at least see the cockpit glass on some of those planes. Either these images are edited, or someone needs to deorbit their satellite. I can’t speak for runways, but the tarmac at at least one US base is also made of squares of concrete, but as small as the gaps are, the surface appears seamless in satellite imagery.
When did all these tin hats come out of the cupboard? Its just sun glare. They wouldnt blur a 747-400- its a passenger jet, and even then, you can see the flaps on the wings.
OK, I’m flip flopping. I don’t think they are altered. I think the image is clipped. That is the contrast has been adjusted so that light grays and white all apear the same color.
Untill I saw that these planes are painted white, I thought they were the standard airforce grey. But if the are white and appear grey, the whites in the photo have been “clipped”. Detail on the planes would be lost, except for big dark areas like the cockpit glass and black paint in front of it.
The clipped image could be intentional, but is likly just a processing error.
These are probably just the photos that Keyhole was given. Keep in mind that high-res shots are not from satellites but from planes and if any air force was really concerned about ariel photography they would have shot the offending planes out of the sky. Everyone just calm down, smoke some weed, and look at the giraffes in the San Diego Zoo.
All greetings! These silly Ukrain boys sell out a child of the Soviet industry and cut it on scrap metal. On it it is possible Spase Shattle to transport… Ugly creatures they, ugly creatures… P.S Sorry for my English
I just wanted to say that the Soviet space shuttles were called Energiya Buran.
Yeah, it’s a shame they didn’t get to do much with their shuttles. At least they knew when they were spending too much though. I heart space exploration, but food for your people is also good.
Now in Russia the space industry is adjusted… In development a new variant of a cargo spacecraft. In general now in Russia it is better to live than 10 years ago. Moscow very dear city. A war industry too like restore. The Russian of an average part has an apartment in cost 100 000 $ the car nearby 30 000 $ and 2-3 times a year go on a resort. So all at us is fine. And still: in Moscow not always winter. Now there nearby +23. And bears there are not present. And not everyone drink vodka. Vodka in Russia cost near 3 $. Abhimat Says: that the Soviet space shuttles were called Energiya I now, but Americans shattles is possible to transport on AN 225 to…
Here are more informations about the Mriya airplane and the Buran project.
http://www.buran-energia.com
I remember when this airplane landed at CFB Trenton in Ontario, Canada. I believe it was picking up a half-dozen locomotives to deliver to Russia.