World's largest airplane

[abtex]

From an Email I got:

WORLD'S LARGEST AIR PLANE
 
THIS AIRPLANE WAS AT THE NIAGARA FALLS AIRPORT RECENTLY (TWICE)
TO LOAD COMPRESSORS TO FLY DIRECTLY TO SAUDI ARABIA

32 wheels! -- Costs more than my house to rotate the tires!  
The World's Biggest Airplane, the Russian Antonov 225.
Attached pics are of the Russian behemoth when it landed.  

While they were loading the helicopters, the Russian pilots (two crews),
went into town to buy cigarettes by the case and Levis jeans.  
It is amazing something this huge can stay in the air.  
The Wright brothers would never have dreamed it.

They are go to need a lot of trucks that size to full the fuel tanks.

Lots of large tires

More pictures here

Hope this is in the right place.

[abtex]

Same plane with old Soviet markings.

The Antonov 225 was especifically designed to carry the Buran, the russian space shuttle. Note the characteristic double fin at the rear. With the Buran piggyback, the machine would be unmaneuverable with one fin.

Giving a piggy-back ride


(pictures were in a different album)

[pyro-manic]

I saw the An-124 (the 225's little brother) at an airshow this summer, and that was a monster. It looked way too big to stay in the air. This one must have been even more impressive!


Heavy lifter by pyro-manic, on Flickr

[Hawkeye]

As impressive as the Russian built heavy lifters are, they have some serious shortcomings too. The cargo floor isn't hardened to allow drive on and off without shoring being laid down first. Also heavy objects that can't be rolled onboard must be lifted using an overhead crane inside the aircraft to pick it up and position it in the cargo bay.

US heavy lifters have strengthened floors and a palletization roller system built in. Heavy objects can be carried aboard on dollies or pallet train to slide it into place. The trade off of having a more robust floor is payload, but the reward is faster and easier on and offloading. When time is essential to get the items to the destination, quicker loading is critical. What's even more critical is spending less time at the forward location, especially if it is a hostile one...man or nature.

Back in the eighties we turned 8 C-5As that brought in men and material to fight the forest fires raging out of control in Yellowstone Nat'l Park. We turned each quickly with minimal manpower. Had we had to use a crane inside the aircraft it would have been a time consuming process. Our allotted turn time for each aircraft was not to exceed 45 minutes, that included unloading and giving them some fuel to fly onto their next stop...as one departed another landed to take its place to be unloaded. The aircraft were not allowed to leave the hammerhead turnaround area at the end of the runway because of their gross weight. This meant we had limited real estate to use, so we had to do them one at a time.

[perttime]

I saw the An-124 (the 225's little brother) at an airshow this summer, and that was a monster.

One of those flying over the house at night sounds pretty interesting...

They sometimes drop by either hauling some military hardware or picking up disaster relief supplies for the Red Cross.

[kitnut617]

The 225 came into Calgary at the beginning of the year

[PR19_Kit]

From what I saw of the Russian An-124 at Fairford some years ago they had the overhead crane loading and unloading down to a fine art. It's two ways of doing the same job using two different methods, each one of which suits the particular user.

[Martin H]

I saw the 225 at Farnborough when it made its first appearance in the west. I even brought a large desk top model off the crew.
The captain had apparently told the show organizers that if the weather was bad they could hold the flying display inside his bird

I saw it again fairly recently at east midlands airport, being used as a flying ware house for Primarks (a UK clothing store). Their main distribution deport at Magna park (The former RAF Bitteswell) had gone up in smoke, so replacement stock was flown in from China in the 225. Unfortunately nobody had told the Chinese to palletize the load before loading the plane. The plane arrived with boxes of goods stacked all over the place. It was decided to keep the 225 at east midlands while they off loaded each truck load by hand one box at a time direct from the rear ramp as it was needed at their stores.  It was sitting on the ramp for two weeks as a result.

[McColm]

That tyre has no tread!!

[Martin H]

That tyre has no tread!!

Show us at least one ex soviet trash hauler that hasnt got at least one bald tyre lol

[rickshaw]

From what I saw of the Russian An-124 at Fairford some years ago they had the overhead crane loading and unloading down to a fine art. It's two ways of doing the same job using two different methods, each one of which suits the particular user.

Its more a case I think of different compromises being accepted by the end user.  The USAF likes the idea of minimal infrastructure to turn around its aircraft quickly on forward airfields but that means reduced payload.  The Russian Air Force wanted this as a freighter, not a military transport and so it wasn't intended to be used on forward airfields but more as a strategic transport, allowing the rapid movement of supplies between theatres, so increased turn around times were considered acceptable in return for increased payload.   Both systems are valid, if one understands that the aircraft are not actually, directly comparable.

[Logan Hartke]

That tyre has no tread!!

Show us at least one ex soviet trash hauler that hasnt got at least one bald tyre lol

My father used to work in the tire shop of an Air National Guard unit and he had to fly on an ex-Soviet An-26 in Kazakhstan in the late 1990s.  He said that their tires were totally bald and even had steel bands showing through.  It wouldn't have been cleared to fly in any airport in the US.  That was a commercial flight in a regularly scheduled route in Kazakhstan, too.  I think he wished he hadn't look at it before he boarded.

Cheers,

Logan