The Largest Airplane on Earth: the An-225

The An-225 Mriya is the largest airplane ever built. It is a “strategic airlift transport aircraft” and was manufactured by the Antonov Design Bureau, Russia. 

The plane can transport some of the cargoes that are too large for the other large cargo planes of the day. What gives it this ability is its extra-large cargo deck.

At present there is one An-225 flying; a second one is getting ready for delivery around 2010.  

The An-225 is the world’s heaviest and largest aircraft with a maximum gross weight of 600 tonnes,  even bigger than the Airbus A380.  

In November 2004, FAI placed the An-225 in the Guinness Book of Records for its 240 records.

What an enormous machine… imagine the hundreds of thousands of CAD drafting hours taken to produce the thousands of drawings used for its construction!