Original subtitles

A red sun rises over Goose Bay, Newfoundland.

The world's biggest aircraft is refueling on the tarmac

on its way from Berlin to Edmonton

with a single piece of cargo, a 151 ton heat boiler.

The only plane capable of lifting such a heavy object

is the Antonov An-225 Mriya.

As six turbo fan jet engines begin to spin,

a deafening hum fills the air.

Technicians make their last checks on the massive cargo

and pilots prepare for take off.

The air catches the wings and the giant takes to the skies.

The An-225 is unmatched and unrivaled,

a heavyweight in the heavy lift sector.

(upbeat music)

More than a quarter of a century has passed

since the maiden flight of the An-225.

Since then, the legendary cargo aircraft

has broken hundreds of world records

and transported some of the largest loads known to man

across the globe.

Over a quarter of a century in operation,

it has moved more than 21,000 tons

worth of the widest varieties of cargoes imaginable.

From machines and parts to even animals.

Well, no larger planes have been created so far.

That's it.

I think it's rather expensive to create such a plane

and one needs sufficient experience with large planes

because it's not an easy task.

It's with a part of the testers work.

But if you are scared,

this means this is not your profession.

All the planes have such characteristics and opportunities

that they can be marketed throughout the world.

The boundaries of Ukraine

and even of the former Soviet Union are too narrow for them.

Kiev, the great city on the Dnieper River,

is the capital of Ukraine

which stretches from the frontiers of Poland and Hungary

to Russia and the Black sea.

Until independence in 1991, Ukraine was part first of Russia

then the Soviet Union.

It was here that after World War II the Soviet government

decided to locate one of its prime strategic industries,

cargo planes.

The Russians were the first to experiment

long distance flight using giant planes

such as this Tupolev ANT-20,

a record breaking aircraft

powered by no less than seven engines.

The Germans developed a powered glider

for heavy transport duties during World War II,

the Messerschmitt Me 323 Gigant or giant.

The world was getting used to mega planes

well, before the Antonov Design Bureau was founded.

The Antonov Design Bureau was built around

one of Russia's foremost aircraft designers, Oleg Antonov.

The state owned everything, however.

So when Oleg Antonov pioneered record-breaking aircraft

in the 1960s, he continued to be just an aircraft designer.

His team grew and eventually was able to control production

of the aircraft in its own factories.

Mriya started with Ruslan the An-124 plane.

It was a plane designed by Oleg Konstantinovich Antonov,

AN-124 Ruslan and the idea that gave rise to our dream

also belonged to Antonov.

Everything changed as the world was changing.

In Soviet times,

we were dealing with aviation tasks

which were financed entirely by the state.

The planning was centralized.

The government gave us tasks telling us what to do.

It provided funds

and this is how the planes were constructed.

During the cold war years,

the Antonov Design Bureau came up with solutions

to Russia's pressing need to transport troops and weapons

long distances at high speed.

While the USA was producing the Lockheed C-130 Hercules,

Antonov designed and built the An-22.

A long distance transport plane

that was the largest of its kind on the market at the time.

The world was already full of large aircraft.

American millionaire and pilot Howard Hughes

paid for the largest flying boat ever built

which still holds the record for the widest wingspan,

the Spruce Goose.

It flew only once.

Boeing converted its war productions

into building civilian planes

and the largest airliner at the time, the Boeing 747.

The 747 took to the air in 1970

while the US Air Force ordered a number of large planes

to transport military equipment halfway around the world

such as the C-5 Galaxy.

There seemed no limit to the size of the plane

as long as it had power and enough lift in the wings.

Over the years, Antonov adopted the jet engine

and built faster and larger planes for the Soviet military

and tested new concepts such as the An-72

with its over wing engines that increase lift.

However, when the US Air Force began deploying

its long distance C-5 Galaxy transports,

Antonov and the Soviet Union realized that in case of war,

they would have to move just as much military material

as far and as fast.

Design of the then largest transport aircraft

in the world began, the An-124 Ruslan

or as NATO knew it, the Cossack.

It flew for the first time in December, 1982.

The 1980s were marked by increased rivalry

between the USA and Russia in space too.

NASA's space shuttle

not only carried out experiments in space,

but also contributed

to the USA's strategic defense initiative.

A wall of anti-missile technologies that it was claimed

took the teeth out of the Soviet threat.

In an arms race

that eventually broke the back of the Soviet economy,

the Russian space shuttle,

at eyes the Buran played a key role.

Built in 1988

when Ukraine was still a part of the Soviet Union,

the An-225 aircraft still operates from the original site

of the Antonov factory and headquarters here outside Kiev.

Only 25 years ago, this city was a major industrial center

in the Soviet Union.

Here, Soviet engineers of the Antonov Design Bureau

put together the largest military cargo plane of the time,

the An-124 Ruslan, and then were ordered to adapt it

to carry the Soviet Union's own space shuttle, the Buran.

(upbeat music)

After the end of World War II, the USA in the Soviet Union

vied to break records in space.

Although the Russians were the first to successfully

send a satellite, then a cosmonaut into space.

The Americans put a man on the moon

and advanced space technology

through a strategic defense initiative dubbed Star Wars,

which included massive funding

for NASA's space shuttle program.

Russia meanwhile, used the space race to develop

its first Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles.

the Russian space shuttle flew it's first

and only space flight on the 15th of November, 1988.

But just as the Americans used a jumbo jet to carry theirs,

the Soviets too needed a big plane to carry Buran.

They asked Antonov for a solution.

The result was this.

In the An-225 plane

called Mriya, dream,

we used Ruslan's wings and the body.

In fact, the larger part of the center body from Ruslan

and the chassis, but we added some changes.

In order to save design time,

the Antonov Bureau began using the then largest plane

as a base.

A twin tail to make space for Buran,

more engines for more power, larger wings for more lift

and a massive cargo hold to be able to carry

the space shuttle's ancillary equipment.

Objects as large as 11 meters in diameter and 76 meters long

can fit inside.

But with a payload of 250 metric tons,

it could also carry things on its back,

which is what it is designed for.

The An-124 Ruslan morphed into something quite different

but clearly related,

the Mriya or dream.

The changes were quite significant.

They included an additional center part of the wing

and the additional engines

because there were four there and six here

and the rear loading hatch was closed and Mriya.

In other words, these were in fact, the main parameters.

Among the unique characteristics

of Soviet era aircraft are their robustness.

Sturdy frames and tough under carriage

were a fundamental part of Soviet design strategy

to enable aircraft to survive a potential nuclear war

and deploy to irregular or semi prepared airfields.

Like all Antonov planes, this one was designed to land

not only on paved, but also on unpaved airfields.

This explains the number of chassis

and respectively, the frame is large.

This all has to be buffered during the impact stress

during landing.

It has to be distributed

and the number of chassis was designed respectively.

However, not only had the aircraft

to be able to survive tough landings,

but the airfields had to survive the giant's weight

plunging onto them too.

the Plane's payload is a whopping 250 metric tons.

The Antonov 225

has an increased capacity landing gear system

with 32 wheels, some of which are steerable.

It was designed so the aircraft could turn on small runways.

On each side, there are seven pairs of wheels

plus two front landing gears with two wheels,

explains Grygorenko Maksym

who is in charge of maintenance on the Mriya.

There are seven rows of the main chassis.

They are special because

despite of the big size of this plane,

the last four rows are rotary racks.

Despite its dimensions, the plane can turn round

in a small place with minimum radius.

When the plane is towed, these wheels can turn as well.

In the tiny cockpit, conventional instruments

move the control surfaces hydraulically

and the throttles for the six massive turbofan engines

are still manual.

The cockpit opens onto a corridor where the crew

and technicians can rest during a long mission.

Dimitri Antonov has worked for 22 years at Antonov

since retiring as a military pilot and instructor.

He has flown nearly every Antonov designed plane

including this one,

the most massive of them all.

This aircraft, Antonov 225

also Antonov 124, Antonov 70 to 74,

Antonov 148, 158.

That's another one aircraft.

It is a unique experience to be

at the cockpit controls of this one of a kind plane.

I am driving the biggest aircraft in the world.

It's just only the difference.

But for normal control it's not easy but it's not so hard.

You have all control

and you have a big team flying with you,

we are working to have a good team spirit

and everybody trying to help and working for captain

to make a safe flight.

His crew of pilots, engineers, mechanics

and technicians must all know the An-225 in great detail.

They must be autonomous so that wherever they land,

they can troubleshoot any problems on their own.

Nobody knows this aircraft.

We have to, after landing, we have to make

loading, offloading, fueling

and maybe if we have some problem with the equipment

to make a small maintenance or repair something.

That's all totally usually we are flying 18, 20 persons

on this aircraft.

We have to cabins here.

This is the pilot cabin and technicians cabin

in the rare side.

We have enough space to feel like home here.

He has come to know every corner

of the cavernous aircraft whose vast spaces are remarkable.

It's totally, we have six beds.

It's good,

good for who make

the decision to prepare for long flight and

to sleep here, to take a dinner.

Also, we have a small kitchen here

to prepare coffee, tea or heat catering.

And here we have big space for,

just simply space for we can walk here

and also we are keeping here some spare parts

for our navigation equipment for all other systems.

You can see it's equipment, navigation equipment,

fire protection system and also it's finished.

We can proceed from here to top of aircraft

Actually placing a load

inside such an a massive aircraft was a huge challenge.

So designers had an internal crane built

inside the cargo hound.

It's almost 44 meters long.

It's six meters wide and four,

or more than four meters high.

Inside you can see everything

what needs to load the aircraft.

It's a loading equipment to crane to take any kind of cargo.

We have equipment to fix the aircraft,

to fix this cargo inside compartment

and also some spare parts, the spare wheel and our,

for example here it's the tow bar

because it needs sometimes to tow in aircraft on ground.

Here is a door to...

Through this door, we can proceed to the technicians

compartment.

It's not connecting to this pilot cabin

but it's the same

quite enough space

to stay our technicians during the flight.

Remarkably, there is a lot of space

that goes unused.

The load masters are also catered for with ample space

for dining sleeping and passing the hours in flight.

It's a small kitchen here to prepare

and it's a place where the technician are sitting

during takeoff and landing.

And the backside, you see 11 beds.

It's good for rest

A kneeling under carriage

and a folding nose loading ramp

are the heavy lift hallmarks of the An-225.

It literally loads and unloads oversized cargo

through its nose and kneels using retractable nose gear

allowing deliveries to drive directly into the cargo bay.

Several small suburban houses or 80 mid-sized cars

can fit inside the cargo bay.

There were other major ways the aircraft differed

from its smaller brother

and from every other aircraft around the world.

It is the one and only such aircraft in the world

dwarfing the Boeing 747

and out lifting the C-5 Galaxy transporter.

And with regard to the fore body,

almost nothing was changed if we compare An-124 to An-225.

And of course, in view of the larger capacity with regard

to the length of the center body and the wings,

the planes carrying capacity was increased

to 250 tons maximum, that's all.

The wingspan of the aircraft

was extended from 73 to 88 meters

and the wing profile was modified too

to give it extra lift at the junction with the fuselage

and greater winds to house even more fuel

an incredible 300,000 kilos worth.

The extra fuel was needed to power

the Six Ivchenko Progress D-18T engines

built in the Soviet Union, now Russia.

Each of these engines provides 51,600 pounds of thrust,

enough to push the aircraft up to a takeoff speed

of over 850 kilometers per hour.

The wing profile and thrust gives enough power

to get the 280 ton aircraft and all its fuel and cargo

a stunning total of up to 640 tons into the air,

to a cruising speed of 800 kilometers per hour.

On the 1st of December 1988,

the Antonov Design Bureau finally presented its plane.

It had not flown yet and many wondered if it ever would.

The Mriya lifted off the snowbound runway

and graced the skies over Kiev

with a 74 minute maiden flight.

That day, it set 106 world records for aviation.

These were quite difficult times.

These were the times before the collapse

of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, CEB

and the USSR collapse.

Although our firm was working like we are working now,

everything we were doing was done

on the basis of great enthusiasm.

Upon seeing the An-225,

the first pilot was reported as doubting

whether the plane could actually manage

to lift off the ground.

Oleksandr Galunenko is a test pilot,

one of the people tasked with trying out new planes.

He flew the An-225 with the Buran piggyback

all the way to Paris.

That's why back in 1989,

when the program wasn't closed,

we flew the Mriya in May, 1989 to Baikonaur

where we put Buran on it

and we conducted a series of tests with Buran.

And then we flew with this Buran back here Gostomel.

And then we flew to Paris, Le Bourget

and we showed this tender Mriya Buran.

And before the Soviet Union collapsed,

this system began to fail.

The state financing was constantly decreasing

and we had to think how to go on.

We had to find ways to earn money

in order to build new planes

and to continue our aviation work.

And this is when this idea was conceived

for us to start to provide air transportation services.

The An-225 didn't just dazzle Paris,

but was showcased in many countries

during the tensions of the Soviet era.

Before that, we exhibited our plans

at various air shows in the world, in Paris, Le Bourget

held every two years, (indistinct)

we were in Singapore, we flew to the US,

all that during the Soviet Union times to show our planes.

The decline of the Soviet Union

was marked by the worst nuclear disaster

the world had ever seen,

the explosion of the second reactor in Chernobyl,

close to the Ukrainian Capital of Kiev.

The radioactive fallout took many victims.

And as the scope

of the environmental catastrophe became clear,

the population of the surrounding area was displaced.

This was the An-225's first humanitarian mission

just before the Soviet Union collapsed.

Well, let's say in 1990 to 91, I had to transport cargoes.

At that time, Ukrainian diaspora in America

collected some medical equipment for the children

who suffered the results of the Chernobyl disaster,

which was needed.

It was important for them to make it visible

and they asked even the president,

if I'm not mistaken to send them not some Ruslan

but Mriya specifically.

So I brought several such shipments from New York

and from Philadelphia.

The collapse of the Soviet Union

was an unexpected event and many of the planes

that were in the design pipeline would never be realized.

The Antonov Design Bureau however,

would manage to keep this giant of the skies alive.

The Soviet Union had plans to build several such planes

and there is a second plane,

yet it is difficult to say to which extent it is ready,

maybe about 40%.

Well, it was as it was.

There were no funds available

to complete construction of the second plane

and it's remained unfinished.

And the plan was to create several such Mriyas

than the Soviet Union collapsed.

Funding ceased and we were not even able to complete

the final flying test in order to receive the certificate.

The Antonov Airlines factory

near Kiev continued

but the An-225 was sadly parked for storage.

It would be muff bound for seven years

before the Antonov Airlift Company

managed to get it repaired and certified for commercial use.

And only seven years later funds were found,

Internal financial resources that enabled us

to modernize Mriya for the commercial needs

and complete these approximately 20 trial flights

in order to obtain the certificate.

And then it could transport cargoes

flying all over the world.

That is why the experience of Antonov,

both with regard to the use and maintenance is great

because it is about not only aerodynamics,

but also the capacity, resource, reliability

of the supporting system.

And the Mriya has all of it.

In the year 2000,

the plane went through a series of upgrades and repairs

and then again made its first public debut in may 2001

at the ceremony of the opening of the new

Boryspil Kiev airport.

In June, Europe got its first look at the sleeping giant

that had been modernized to take to the sky is once again.

It was displayed at the Le Bourget airshow in France.

September the 11th, 2001 would make aviation history

in more than one way.

In order to demonstrate its potential to the world,

On the 11th of September, 2001

we performed a record cargo lifting of 253 tons

for 10,500 meters of height.

Yet, since this event took place

on the 11th of September, 2001,

another event that happened at that time

overshadowed this record.

The terrorist attacks

on the World Trade Center in New York

would forever overshadow the 124 world records

broken by the An-225 that day.

It flew with four Ukrainian tanks,

a total weight of 253 tons.

With that heavy cargo,

it reached a top speed of 763 kilometers per hour

but very few gave it much attention.

The September the 11th attacks led to two massive wars

in Iraq and Afghanistan, in which Antonov Airlines

and An-225 would fly missions for the US Army engineers

and Special Forces into some of the most dangerous territory

in the world.

In one particularly dangerous mission,

the An-225 flew gas turbines

into the heart of the fighting in Iraq

to the Baiji Power Plant.

Our planes are also often used for transportation

of military equipment.

All of these operations are carried out

in accordance with intergovernmental agreements

when diplomatic permits are obtained as required.

So we transport military equipment

from one continent to another as well.

Our planes were very often used

during operations in Afghanistan, Iraq,

and before that in the Persian Gulf during the desert storm

if you remember the 1991, 92 war.

The desert storm operation.

Our planes were used to carry bulldozers

and others equipment to put out burning oil wells

in that war.

Back in Kiev, Serihy Sliusarenko

manages the Antonov heavy lift operations

and cargo carrier requests

coming in from all over the world.

I am an Operational Duty Attendant.

We support the charter flights for our Ruslans,

our experimental planes.

All planes that fly in NTK Antonov receive support

in accordance with the orders handlings.

Kerosene is supplied in all airports from which we fly.

This is our responsibility.

(upbeat music)

In spring 2015, Antonov Airlines

was contracted to transport a boiler

from Berlin to Edmonton, Canada

for use in a new water waste plant.

The mission required careful planning.

The unit had to be moved all in one piece.

No other means of transport

was efficient enough for the job.

(upbeat music)

Because these are unique planes

and cargoes are sometimes very difficult.

After the unique cargoes weighing 186 tons

that are transported with Mriya,

for them special time is required

to prepare our loading equipment.

For instance, some heavy generators

or welded frames and so on.

This is developed by our load planning

which is a special office that looks, calculates,

sometimes examines these items and sees what they need.

The cargo weighed 151 tons,

too heavy for any other transport plane.

And without the Mriya,

could only have been transported by sea,

a lengthy and risky transatlantic voyage.

We receive commitment advice from the businesses,

the transportation contract and we prepare the schedule.

We select the most suitable option

that ensures the safest and cheapest transformation

for the customer.

Then we reconcile the price and begin to plan the tasks.

We submit requests to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

for military transportation

and requests are also submitted for civil lines.

We form the briefing and support the flight performance.

The An-225 is often in demand

because of its advantages

when it comes to speed and performance.

In proportion, it is far more cost effective

than any means of transport

although it is a massive fuel guzzler

that leaves a huge carbon footprint.

The time of flight performance

does not depend on the type of plane.

Mriya is a unique plane

and it began to be used more often recently

because the world market is somewhat inert

and it needs time to learn that some cargoes

were transported in this or in that region.

This is why recently,

when the French began to transport cargoes from Africa,

from various difficult airports,

they saw that Mriya was highly efficient.

Because for instance, Ruslan can transport only 60 tons

to the nearest point

whereas Mriya can transport twice as much, 110.

This plane as well as Mriya

was designed for transportation of very large cargoes

and they are big planes.

Big planes create big aerodynamic resistance

and very powerful engines unnecessarily to overcome it.

Powerful engines require a lot fuel

that is why the capacity of the fuel tanks in the An-124

is 273 tons.

273 tons make it possible to fly for many hours,

more than 24.

And in Mriya, the fuel tanks can hold more than twice

the An-124.

After nearly being retired,

the second career of the indefatigable An-225

had only just begun.

The An-225 flight from Leipzig in Germany

carrying a massive 151 ton boiler to Edmonton in Canada

via Goose Bay is underway.

The crew can relax in the lounge built in the aircraft tail

while the pilots take turns of the controls

occasionally able to sleep.

The flight is long, but broken up with refueling stops

at Reykjavik and Goose Bay,

where the glorious dawn allows the Antonov dream

to live up to its name.

The mega air lifter takes off on the last leg of the flight

with wings bending under the weight of the 300 tons of fuel

that are needed to get it to its destination.

As the plane flies empty only when it has to,

for instance after it was unloaded and has to fly

to pick up a new load, the fuel tanks are almost never full.

The plane is loaded and it can take only as much fuel

as is necessary to fly to the next airdrome.

Despite its enormous size, the Mriya

is more cost-effective than most giants of the air.

Mriya needs 20 tons of fuel

during the first hour of its flight

and then 18, 17, and less.

The weight of the plane decreases as the fuel is burned

and the fuel consumption decreases.

So big planes need a lot of fuel.

The Antonov airlift company has been called upon

to transport humanitarian cargoes too,

such as to the 2010 Haiti earthquake site

and to Japan the following year.

The Mriya is perfect for the job as it is a single plane

with one cargo and can get the job done in just a few days.

In 2009, the US Federal Emergency Management Agency

contracted the An-225 to fly 10 massive generators

into American Samoa after it tsunami damaged a power plant.

On board of the Antonov are 10 500kW generators.

We're about to begin the offload process.

They'll be brought over to our generator staging area,

about two miles away.

In the next several days,

they will be deployed from the generator staging area

out onto the Island.

The reason why they are here is because

there's not enough generation capability on Island

with a loss of one of the power plants.

These generators plus the generators

that we already have on Island are gonna help stabilize

the electrical grid throughout the Island.

The reason why this plane was used to transport the cargo is

we have all 10 generators on one aircraft.

This is the only aircraft capable

of moving this load at once.

Today, Antonov Airlines

flies on mix of humanitarian, military

and commercial missions.

Last time we transported from England,

East Midland if I'm not mistaken,

pressure equipment for production of Jaguar car bodies.

They relocated their production facilities to Detroit, USA.

We flew to Toronto where we unloaded and then it was near

and they transported their equipment further on themselves.

There were no special technical things.

The cargo was heavy, almost 180 tons,

170 and something was the weight of this pressure equipment.

For Mriya, such cargoes are normal and the customary.

The Antonov Company based in Kiev, Ukraine

constructs and designs aircraft for a niche market,

transporting the heaviest objects in the world

that need to be moved from one place to another.

As well as having the largest operating plane in the world,

it has a fleet of heavy lift aircraft

many of which have the capability

of landing on unpaved and uneven airstrips

in the most far-flung destinations.

The An-178 is one of these planes

and a new prototype has just been built.

And An-178 is the plane that can carry approximately

15 to 18 tons of cargo which is very important.

It can carry various types of cargoes

and it has a sufficiently big cabin.

It can also transport Marine containers.

Rain pelts the tarmac as the new An-178

prepares for its maiden flight from Kiev

on a stormy day in May, 2015.

It is slowly toed into place by Antonov technicians

eager to see their new design take flight.

As the pilots prepare for takeoff,

spectators huddle along the runway

braving the bad weather to watch the new prototype lift off.

This plane has a rather high speed.

It can be used in unpaved airfields

and today this niches vacant.

Which niche?

It is for the planes with the carrying capacity

between 10 and 11 tons and 20 tons, exactly 15 to 18.

(upbeat music)

After landing, the successful first flight

is celebrated by decorated military officers,

government dignitaries and representatives

from the Commercial Aviation Sector.

It is a rare showing of public fanfare

in this country ripped apart by war.

A moment for Ukraine to remind the world

of one of its standout industries, aircraft engineering.

(upbeat music)

The recently unveiled prototype An-178

may be part of the next generation of Antonov planes.

But that doesn't mean that the life of the An-225 is over.

To fully understand why Antonov is such a player

in heavy lift aircraft,

it is important to look at the market.

While there are similar planes

with massive heavy lift capabilities built by Boeing

like the Boeing C-17 Globemaster III and Lockheed C-130.

These planes are for military not commercial use

making Antonov one of the only private sector choices

for the transportation of massive cargo.

(upbeat music)

There is no other plane that looks quite like it,

with its nose, able to open up for a loading ramp

and it's kneeling under carriage,

the An-225 is capable of lifting off the ground

with a load of 640 metric tons

and fitting for small suburban houses in its cargo bay.

This monster of the skies

has carried the biggest manmade objects in the world

and retains its title as the largest airplane in use

even after nearly three decades.

Thank God, the plane is 25 years old

and we have only removable problems.

I mean, it hasn't required any global improvements so far

and there was no need for them in individual systems.

Everything that is worn or broken

in the process of use is replaced.

In other words, this is a normal operation process.

Of course, planes are getting old

and they need more attention, that's all.

Until the aviation industry

can develop an aircraft with the same heavy lift capacities,

the Mriya will remain one of a kind.

Mriya remains the largest plane or transport plane,

the largest plane in general in the world.

I think no one is building a larger plane so far.

(upbeat music)

With regular checkups and mechanical repairs,

the life expectancy of the An-225

could be extended to 50 years in full operation

giving this mighty record-breaking aviation giant

another quarter of a century in the skies.

(upbeat music)