Officially the world’s largest flying aircraft, the Antonov 225 (AN-225) is making a rare intercontinental flight, which started on May 10, to transport a generator from Prague, in the Czech Republic, to Perth, in Australia.

The AN-225 is nicknamed Mriya, which means ‘dream’ in Ukranian.

Antonov Airlines is operating the strategic airlift cargo aircraft in a series of flights that started at the Antonov airport in Kiev, Ukraine, and is proceeding to Prague, where a generator with supporting equipment will be loaded into the cargo hold of the aircraft. The total weight of the cargo that will be delivered to Perth is 130 t.

As part of its journey from the Czech Republic to Australia, the AN-225 is performing three intermediate stops in Turkmenistan, India and Malaysia. The distance of the route from Kiev to Perth is more than 15 580 km.

Antonov Airlines states that this flight “caused a deep resonance”, adding that thousands of people will “meet Mriya at all the airports on the route”. When the aircraft lands in Australia, it is expected to be met by about 50 000 aviation enthusiasts, waiting to catch a rare glimpse of the flying icon.

In recent years, the AN-225 makes a handful of flights yearly.

The flight is being performed by Antonov Airline’s crew, with flight captain chief pilot Dmytro Antonov.

Manufactured from 1984 to 1988 by Ukranian aircraft manufacturer Antonov, the AN-225 is powered by six D-18T turbofan engines, which produce 229.5 kN of thrust each, thereby giving the aircraft the ability to carry 250 t of cargo.

The only other aircraft ever built that was larger was the Hughes H-4 Hercules, which made a brief flight in 1947 before being abandoned. This aircraft had eight radial engines, powering the same number of propellers.

Only one AN-225 was manufactured up to an airworthy state; a second AN-225 airframe was partially built, but owing to a lack of funds and interest at the time, manufacturing was halted and never completed.

The AN-225 was conceptualised to transport the former Soviet Union’s version of a space shuttle, the Buran space ship. After the Buran space programme ended in 1993 – as a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union – the AN-225 was mothballed until the early 2000s after the requirement for a super-heavy transport aircraft emerged.

According to Antonov Airlines, the AN-225 underwent a “modernisation” programme in 2000 to make it airworthy again, with the aim to prepare it for the transportation of commercial cargoes.

Following its modernisation, the aircraft was submitted for and passed certification tests. On May 23, 2001, the Aviation Register of Interstate Aviation Committee and Ukraviatrans issued type certificates to the AN-225. Since then, the AN-225 has been performing commercial air transport as part of the airlift fleet of Antonov Airlines’ transport subdivision, Antonov Company.

The AN-225 has a cargo compartment that is 43.3 m long, 6.4 m wide and 4.4 m high. This enables it to transport a variety of cargoes, including 16 aeronautical containers of type UAC-10, 50 cars and various large pieces of cargo, such as turbines, generators and specialised vehicles.

Over its course of service, the AN-225 has set up 240 world records, including the transportation of the heaviest assortment of cargo (253 t), the heaviest single peace of cargo (186.7 t) and the longest item of cargo, which was 42.1 m long.

It has a wingspan of 97.5 m and a length of 66.5 m, and is crewed by three.

Further, the AN-225 has also participated in numerous humanitarian operations, such as the October 2009 transporting of several generators to Samoa, where they were used at the Satala power station after it had been damaged by a tsunami. The AN-225 made several flights to Samoa, with each trip involving the transport of ten 12 t generators.

It also transported large construction machinery (bulldozers, trucks, tractors and loaders) in February 2010 to assist with the aftermath of an earthquake that hit Haiti, in the Caribbean. This cargo weighed 108 t and was delivered from Tokyo, Japan, to Santo Domingo, in the Dominican Republic. Antonov Airlines states that the Japanese government chartered this flight, owing to the AN-225’s ability to transport “such a large cargo”.

During 2009, the life span of the AN-225 was extended by up to 25 years as part of the upgrade of its aviation equipment.