The worlds largest plane is the Antonov An-225 Myria, The Russian word ' Мрия ' incidentally means 'inspired dream' it is classed as a Strategic Air-lifter and was constructed by the Antonov Design Bureau in the Ukraine in 1988 as a derivative from the Antanov An124.

This thing is big...its like lying a skyscraper on its side then attaching some wings to it.

There were only two An-225 planes ever built, with their colossal size though, it must be said that you only need two !

The An-225 took its maiden flight on the 21st December 1988, whilst two of these planes were actually commissioned there is only one in operation with the registration UR-82060.

The An-225 is not a military plane and is therefore available for flying anyone's oversized cargo to anywhere in the the world.  With a capacity of 550,000 lb in its cargo area or 440,000 lb carried on the upper fuselage (on the outside) the An-225 is certainly an airplane that's up to the job of ultra heavy haulage.

The plane was originally intended for use within the Russian space program to haul the Buran space shuttle orbiter from destination to destination, but due to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990 much of the Russian Space program was cancelled along with any further development of the An-225. 

The image below depicts the An-225 with the Russian 'Buran' shuttle orbiter perched on its back, this idea of using a large plane to transport a space shuttle was copied by the Russians directly from NASA who used a similar method of transporting their space shuttle on a modified Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet.

The second An-225 of which is described as a just a large airframe is currently 'shedded' in storage collecting dust.  The engines of this second plane were cannibalized for use on an An-124 as the poor Russian and Ukranian economy stated that it was best to use items already built rather than make new ones, sounds like common sense to me !

The Specifications of the Antonov An-225 are quite impressive.

It only has a crew of 6 to fly, run and operate, consisting of two pilots, two flight engineers, a navigator and a communications officer. The maximum payload is 551,200lb's or 275 (short) tons and the planes length is 275 ft with a wingspan of 290ft.

The plane stands nearly 60 feet high from its gear to the tip of its tail.  The huge cargo door that opens on the front of the plane is 14 ft tall and 21 ft across, big enough to take an articulated truck or bigger.  The cargo hold itself is 141 ft long.

The huge front cargo door is comprised of the entire front nose cone and big hydraulic rams lift the door wide open, whilst a hydraulic ramp then emerges from the hold to allow the cargo ingress and egress into the hold.  This all in one feature saves time, effort and money

The world record breaking maximum take-off weight of the An-225, ( this includes the weight of the plane itself ) is a massive 1 million, 322 thousand and 750lbs ! and needs 3,500 meters of runway to achieve take off on its 32 wheeled landing gear.  This array of wheels and the actual close configuration that they are in are needed to support the entire weight of the plane and any heavy payload when its on the ground.

The front landing gear can be lowered to allow the front of the plane to 'dip' for even greater ease to assist  large and heavy cargo to be loaded and unloaded comfortably.  Large hydraulic 'feet' also lower to give the plane extra stability when loading and unloading its heavy cargo and can be seen in the images below.

Taking off  is not a problem as the An-225 is powered by 6 massive ZMKB Ivchenko Progress D-18 Turbofan Jet engines producing 303,600lbs or 151 tons of constant combined thrust, which will accelerate the plane to over hundred mph on the runway to get it airborne.

The pane can reach a maximum flight speed of 460 knots or 530mph with a cruising speed of 430 knots or 500mph.  With a maximum cargo capacity filling the hold it has a range of 2,500 miles, this range is increased when the plane is not carrying any cargo to  9,570 miles.  The cruise height or ceiling altitude at which the An-225 generally flies is 36,000 ft  or nearly 7 miles high.

From the pilots perspective, he isn't really reminded of the size of the plane as the flight deck is similar to all other planes with the usual array of knobs, dials, levers and gauges.  All aircraft have windows for the pilot to see out of but these planes are always flow via the gauges and readouts and windows are not needed.

The only time windows are of any use to the pilot are when the plane is taxiing along the runway.

The An-225 is currently classed as the worlds largest and indeed heaviest aircraft with its gross maximum weight of 640 tons.  In September 2001 the An-225 carried a world record cargo of 254 tons at an altitude of 6,500 feet whilst traveling at 474 mph.

Today the Antonov An-225 earns its money by being charted out by Antonov Airlines the Ukranian company that was set up to manage the plane.  Antonov Airlines is based in Kiev, in the Ukraine in partnership with Air Foyle Heavy Lift Ltd of the UK.

A cool YouTube video below shows the An-225 coming to land and some excellent taxiing footage.  The sound of the engines isalso captured quite well.

The plane has in many areas become quite invaluable in that is has been used for transporting such items as a 150 ton generator, an entire locomotive steam train and tons of emergency aid for countries needing relief such as 800 tons of supplies for humanitarian aide in Iraq.

The plane can also take military equipment such as many tons of munitions and even 60 ton tanks to conflict area where they are needed quickly

I could only guess that the second plane will soon be brought out of its hangar and put into service by Antonov Airlines as this plane is now generating a lot of revenue for its owners, probably more than was ever fist envisaged.

The Antonov An-225 somewhat overshadows the rest of the planes when parked up for display as seen in the image above.

It's amazing that something as huge as this plane can actually get of the ground and stay off the ground when its up there, such is its size, it seams to defy the imagination and the mind can boggle somewhat.

The Antonov An-225 is a true statement of the advancement in aviation engineering both in shear size and technology and also boldly illustrates how far we have come from the first powered flight by the Wright Brothers, when they first took to the air at Kitty Hawk in 1903.

The Wright Brothers first flight was 120 feet, which is not quite the length of a wing on the Antonov An-225 at 145 feet !

This plane often makes trips to the UK and USA and if you were to visit some of the air shows and displays that are held every year, then you may be lucky enough to see one in the flesh.

The Antonov An-225, the worlds biggest aircraft.