Anotov AN-225 "destroyed" in Ukraine
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ricardian
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Anotov AN-225 "destroyed" in Ukraine
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tango15
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Re: Anotov AN-225 "destroyed" in Ukraine
There are a number of stories floating around about this. The problem is the the Russians are in charge of Gostomel airfield, (The home of Antonov),so they can't get to it to assess the damage. Given the attitude of the Russians at the moment, I think the Ukrainians fear it may have bee destroyed, but assuming that the assembly hall is still intact, there's a partially completed one there.
It has a special place in my heart. I saw it do a breathtaking show in Moscow in 1992.
It has a special place in my heart. I saw it do a breathtaking show in Moscow in 1992.
Re: Anotov AN-225 "destroyed" in Ukraine
The photos in this article are pretty clear: https://www.austrianwings.info/2022/03/ ... sgebrannt/
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Re: Anotov AN-225 "destroyed" in Ukraine
That's destroyed innit, not flying again I would venture.
https://www.wunderground.com/dashboard/pws/ITORRO10?cm_ven=localwx_pwsdash
Re: Anotov AN-225 "destroyed" in Ukraine
There are rumours that there is another in build, unconfirmed and obviously battle damage unknown.
Re: Anotov AN-225 "destroyed" in Ukraine
There is a second fuselage, it has been around for ages. Various reports describe it as 70% complete, but that appears to be pretty optimistic. Have a look at this article from 2018 for some photos: https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/ ... index.html
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Re: Anotov AN-225 "destroyed" in Ukraine
Probably not a good time to restart work on it....................
Re: Anotov AN-225 "destroyed" in Ukraine
Before Russians tried to give it a buff up.
After they had finished.
A bit like Father Ted trying to repair Bishop Brennan's car.
- Before.png (330.63 KiB) Viewed 492 times
After they had finished.
- after.png (321.71 KiB) Viewed 492 times
A bit like Father Ted trying to repair Bishop Brennan's car.
Re: Anotov AN-225 "destroyed" in Ukraine
Can the world's largest plane ever fly again?
https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/anto ... index.html
(CNN) — The images of the wrecked Antonov AN-225 are now an indelible memory for aviation enthusiasts worldwide.
Built in the 1980s to ferry the Soviet space shuttle, the plane got a second life after the Cold War as the world's largest cargo transporter, achieving records of all kinds, before being destroyed at the end of February at its home base, Hostomel airfield near Kyiv.
"The dream will never die," tweeted the Antonov company, in reference to the plane's nickname "Mriya," meaning dream in Ukrainian. Solidarity poured in from every corner of the world.
But can the AN-225 ever fly again?
Answering that question firstly requires an assessment of the damage sustained by the aircraft.
CNN's Vasco Cotovio has seen the wreckage up close, when he visited Hostomel airfield in early April, along with other CNN journalists and the Ukrainian National Police.
"Hostomel was the scene of intense fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces since very early in the war," he says.
"Moscow's forces tried to seize the airfield to use it as a forward operating position to which they could fly in additional land units. To do that, they mounted an air assault with attack helicopters.
"They seemed to have had some initial success, but the Ukrainian response was very quick, hitting the airfield fast and strong -- to prevent any sort of landing," he says.
The condition of the plane left no doubts regarding the possibility of a repair.
"The nose of the plane was completely destroyed, seemingly the victim of a direct artillery hit," Cotovio says. "In addition to that, there was extensive damage to the wings and some of the engines. The tail end section was spared from any large impacts and has a few holes caused by either shrapnel or bullets.
"Had it not been for the direct hit on the nose, the AN-225 might have been repairable," he says, adding that the area surrounding the plane was littered with spent ammunition, obliterated Russian tanks and trucks and destroyed armored vehicles.
Andrii Sovenko, a Kyiv-based engineer and aviation expert who has worked for the Antonov Company since 1987 and has flown on the AN-225 as part of its technical crew, has compiled a detailed list of the damage, by looking at a large number of videos and pictures of the wreckage (Antonov personnel are not yet allowed back at Hostomel due to safety concerns).
He confirms that the center section of the fuselage and the nose of the plane -- including the cockpit and the crew rest compartments -- are destroyed, but it's the plane's onboard systems and equipment that received the most critical damage.
"Restoring them will be the hardest," he says. "This is due to the fact that most of the various electrical systems, pumps and filters used on the AN-225 are all from the 1980s.
"They are simply no longer being made, so it's unlikely that they can be restored exactly in the way they were," he says.
It's not all bad news: portions of the wings, including aerodynamic surfaces such as flaps and ailerons, appear to have suffered minor damage, and they could be salvageable.
Most of the six engines also seem intact, and the whole tail section of the plane is affected just by shrapnel damage, leaving it in acceptable condition.
Sovenko, who wrote a book about the history of Antonov Airlines detailing his experience of flying on the Mriya, concurs that the plane at Hostomel can't be repaired.
"It's impossible to talk about the repair or restoration of this aircraft -- we can only talk about the construction of another Mriya, using individual components that can be salvaged from the wreckage and combining them with those that were, back in the 1980s, intended for the construction of a second aircraft."
He refers to the second AN-225 airframe that Antonov has preserved to this day in a large workshop in Kyiv. It was part of an original plan to build two AN-225s, which never panned out.
"This is a completely finished fuselage, with a new center section already installed on it, as well as the load-carrying structure of the wings and the tail unit. In other words, almost a complete airframe. As far as I know, it was practically undamaged during the Russian artillery bombardment of the plant," says Sovenko.
There is one main problem with the idea of building out the unused airframe with salvageable parts from Hostomel: it still won't amount to 100% of the necessary components.
"It will be impossible to build exactly the same aircraft, with the exact same design and equipment," Sovenko says. If that is the case, Antonov faces two hurdles: making new and old components work together and potentially having to go through re-certification of the aircraft, to confirm its airworthiness and compliance with current regulations.
The company has experience with the first issue, having updated many of the AN-225's systems over the years and replacing the old Soviet tech with modern Ukrainian equivalents, but a full certification would require time and increase costs.
Experts say it's unlikely the original airplane will ever be restored to its former glory.
Experts say it's unlikely the original airplane will ever be restored to its former glory.
Genya Savilov/AFPGetty Images
Unfortunately, that appears to be almost inevitable: "It's pointless to build an aircraft today with a 40-year-old design," Sovenko adds. "It's also quite possible that it will be considered appropriate to make additional changes to the aircraft design, based on the operating experience of the original."
The AN-225 was never designed to carry commercial cargo, and it was adapted for the job via extensive work performed by Antonov in the late 1990s. Nevertheless, despite its colossal capacity, the plane remained inconvenient to operate from the point of view of the crew. It has to be lowered on its nose -- a maneuver known as the "elephant kneel" -- to load cargo, which is rolled onboard using custom tracks and pulleys.
Because of its unique design, only the nose of the plane opens, and it doesn't have a ramp at the back like its more practical smaller brother, the AN-124. The cargo floor could also use some reinforcement and the degree of compliance of the aircraft with existing airport infrastructure could be increased, adding to the list of desirable improvements in a hypothetical modern version of the aircraft.
Building out a second Myria won't be cheap, but it's hard to establish exactly how much it would cost. Ukrinform, the Ukrainian national news agency, raised eyebrows when it declared that the cost of the operation would be $3 billion. In 2018, Antonov estimated that the completion of the second airframe would cost up to $350 million, although that figure might need to be revised up now.
"Nothing is known for certain at the moment," says Sovenko, "The cost will depend on how badly damaged the surviving parts of the aircraft are, as well as how many modifications and new equipment will be required. A large portion of the costs will depend on the amount of certification testing deemed necessary. But in any case, we can guess that the final amount will be in the order of hundreds of millions of dollars, not billions."
Richard Aboulafia, an aviation analyst at Aerodynamic Advisory, agrees: "It depends on whether the plane would be merely a prototype, or if they would want it to enter commercial service, with full certification. Certainly $500 million or so is more reasonable, even with certification, than $3 billion."
The real question, Aboulafia says, is who would pay for it? "There's really not much of a commercial application for this plane, and without that, where would the money come from?"
It's easy to think that most of the costs would be sustained by Antonov, but the company has suffered major losses through the destruction of several other aircraft and facilities; although it's still operating at a reduced level, its future is uncertain.
"I am an optimist. I sincerely and deeply wish that Antonov aircraft will continue to fly in the skies of the future," says Sovenko, "but I'm also a realist. And I fully understand that the costs necessary to build the second Mriya will have to be correlated with the financial capabilities of Antonov after the war, as well as with the expected income from the operation of this aircraft."
PP
https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/anto ... index.html
(CNN) — The images of the wrecked Antonov AN-225 are now an indelible memory for aviation enthusiasts worldwide.
Built in the 1980s to ferry the Soviet space shuttle, the plane got a second life after the Cold War as the world's largest cargo transporter, achieving records of all kinds, before being destroyed at the end of February at its home base, Hostomel airfield near Kyiv.
"The dream will never die," tweeted the Antonov company, in reference to the plane's nickname "Mriya," meaning dream in Ukrainian. Solidarity poured in from every corner of the world.
But can the AN-225 ever fly again?
Answering that question firstly requires an assessment of the damage sustained by the aircraft.
CNN's Vasco Cotovio has seen the wreckage up close, when he visited Hostomel airfield in early April, along with other CNN journalists and the Ukrainian National Police.
"Hostomel was the scene of intense fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces since very early in the war," he says.
"Moscow's forces tried to seize the airfield to use it as a forward operating position to which they could fly in additional land units. To do that, they mounted an air assault with attack helicopters.
"They seemed to have had some initial success, but the Ukrainian response was very quick, hitting the airfield fast and strong -- to prevent any sort of landing," he says.
The condition of the plane left no doubts regarding the possibility of a repair.
"The nose of the plane was completely destroyed, seemingly the victim of a direct artillery hit," Cotovio says. "In addition to that, there was extensive damage to the wings and some of the engines. The tail end section was spared from any large impacts and has a few holes caused by either shrapnel or bullets.
"Had it not been for the direct hit on the nose, the AN-225 might have been repairable," he says, adding that the area surrounding the plane was littered with spent ammunition, obliterated Russian tanks and trucks and destroyed armored vehicles.
Andrii Sovenko, a Kyiv-based engineer and aviation expert who has worked for the Antonov Company since 1987 and has flown on the AN-225 as part of its technical crew, has compiled a detailed list of the damage, by looking at a large number of videos and pictures of the wreckage (Antonov personnel are not yet allowed back at Hostomel due to safety concerns).
He confirms that the center section of the fuselage and the nose of the plane -- including the cockpit and the crew rest compartments -- are destroyed, but it's the plane's onboard systems and equipment that received the most critical damage.
"Restoring them will be the hardest," he says. "This is due to the fact that most of the various electrical systems, pumps and filters used on the AN-225 are all from the 1980s.
"They are simply no longer being made, so it's unlikely that they can be restored exactly in the way they were," he says.
It's not all bad news: portions of the wings, including aerodynamic surfaces such as flaps and ailerons, appear to have suffered minor damage, and they could be salvageable.
Most of the six engines also seem intact, and the whole tail section of the plane is affected just by shrapnel damage, leaving it in acceptable condition.
Sovenko, who wrote a book about the history of Antonov Airlines detailing his experience of flying on the Mriya, concurs that the plane at Hostomel can't be repaired.
"It's impossible to talk about the repair or restoration of this aircraft -- we can only talk about the construction of another Mriya, using individual components that can be salvaged from the wreckage and combining them with those that were, back in the 1980s, intended for the construction of a second aircraft."
He refers to the second AN-225 airframe that Antonov has preserved to this day in a large workshop in Kyiv. It was part of an original plan to build two AN-225s, which never panned out.
"This is a completely finished fuselage, with a new center section already installed on it, as well as the load-carrying structure of the wings and the tail unit. In other words, almost a complete airframe. As far as I know, it was practically undamaged during the Russian artillery bombardment of the plant," says Sovenko.
There is one main problem with the idea of building out the unused airframe with salvageable parts from Hostomel: it still won't amount to 100% of the necessary components.
"It will be impossible to build exactly the same aircraft, with the exact same design and equipment," Sovenko says. If that is the case, Antonov faces two hurdles: making new and old components work together and potentially having to go through re-certification of the aircraft, to confirm its airworthiness and compliance with current regulations.
The company has experience with the first issue, having updated many of the AN-225's systems over the years and replacing the old Soviet tech with modern Ukrainian equivalents, but a full certification would require time and increase costs.
Experts say it's unlikely the original airplane will ever be restored to its former glory.
Experts say it's unlikely the original airplane will ever be restored to its former glory.
Genya Savilov/AFPGetty Images
Unfortunately, that appears to be almost inevitable: "It's pointless to build an aircraft today with a 40-year-old design," Sovenko adds. "It's also quite possible that it will be considered appropriate to make additional changes to the aircraft design, based on the operating experience of the original."
The AN-225 was never designed to carry commercial cargo, and it was adapted for the job via extensive work performed by Antonov in the late 1990s. Nevertheless, despite its colossal capacity, the plane remained inconvenient to operate from the point of view of the crew. It has to be lowered on its nose -- a maneuver known as the "elephant kneel" -- to load cargo, which is rolled onboard using custom tracks and pulleys.
Because of its unique design, only the nose of the plane opens, and it doesn't have a ramp at the back like its more practical smaller brother, the AN-124. The cargo floor could also use some reinforcement and the degree of compliance of the aircraft with existing airport infrastructure could be increased, adding to the list of desirable improvements in a hypothetical modern version of the aircraft.
Building out a second Myria won't be cheap, but it's hard to establish exactly how much it would cost. Ukrinform, the Ukrainian national news agency, raised eyebrows when it declared that the cost of the operation would be $3 billion. In 2018, Antonov estimated that the completion of the second airframe would cost up to $350 million, although that figure might need to be revised up now.
"Nothing is known for certain at the moment," says Sovenko, "The cost will depend on how badly damaged the surviving parts of the aircraft are, as well as how many modifications and new equipment will be required. A large portion of the costs will depend on the amount of certification testing deemed necessary. But in any case, we can guess that the final amount will be in the order of hundreds of millions of dollars, not billions."
Richard Aboulafia, an aviation analyst at Aerodynamic Advisory, agrees: "It depends on whether the plane would be merely a prototype, or if they would want it to enter commercial service, with full certification. Certainly $500 million or so is more reasonable, even with certification, than $3 billion."
The real question, Aboulafia says, is who would pay for it? "There's really not much of a commercial application for this plane, and without that, where would the money come from?"
It's easy to think that most of the costs would be sustained by Antonov, but the company has suffered major losses through the destruction of several other aircraft and facilities; although it's still operating at a reduced level, its future is uncertain.
"I am an optimist. I sincerely and deeply wish that Antonov aircraft will continue to fly in the skies of the future," says Sovenko, "but I'm also a realist. And I fully understand that the costs necessary to build the second Mriya will have to be correlated with the financial capabilities of Antonov after the war, as well as with the expected income from the operation of this aircraft."
PP
Re: Anotov AN-225 "destroyed" in Ukraine
AN-225: Plans to rebuild world's largest plane confirmed
https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/anto ... index.html
(CNN) — For avgeeks, the destruction of the world's largest commercial plane was one of the key images at the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. In February, the Antonov AN-225 was attacked at its base in Hostomel, near Kyiv.
"The dream will never die," tweeted the manufacturers when it was destroyed.
Now it looks like they have stayed true to their word, with the company announcing that plans to rebuild it are already underway.
Nicknamed "Mriya" -- Ukrainian for "dream" -- the massive plane was built in the 1980s to carry the Soviet space shuttle.
Its later life, while slightly less glamorous, was equally iconic -- it was the world's largest cargo transporter, with around twice the hold capacity as a Boeing 747, winning cult status among self-styled avgeeks. It stretched to 84 meters, or 275 feet, with the longest wingspan of any fully operational airplane. To date, it is the heaviest aircraft ever built.
The plane's nose took a direct hit, according to CNN journalist Vasco Cotivio, who saw it in April.
Its destruction was announced on February 27 2022, with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeting that "Russia may have destroyed our 'Mriya'... but they will never be able to destroy our dream of a strong, free and democratic European state."
The Antonov Company said at the time that it was unable to verify the condition of the plane, while CNN journalist Vasco Cotovio noted that the nose had apparently taken "a direct artillery hit" and was "completely destroyed" when he saw it on an April visit.
"There was extensive damage to the wings and some of the engines. The tail end section was spared from any large impacts and has a few holes caused by either shrapnel or bullets," he said at the time, predicting that a repair would be unlikely.
On Monday, however, the Antonov Company announced in a tweet that the rebuild project had already begun, with "design work" already in the offing. While it had estimated repair costs, the company predicted a bill of over €500 million ($502 million) to get it back in the air, promising more information "after the victory."
Already the company has around 30% of the components needed to build a new one, it announced.
Originally, Ukrainian state defense company Ukroboronprom, which manages Antonov, had issued a statement estimating the restoration at over $3 billion -- which it vowed to make Russia pay. The rebuild would take at least five years, it said at the time.
It will cost more than $502 million to rebuild, said the company.
The announcement coincides with the launch of an exhibition dedicated to the plane at Leipzig/Halle Airport in Germany, which is home to five other Antonov aircraft. "Light and shadow: The Antonov story" shows photos of the aircraft before and after its destruction, focusing on the engineering prowess that was lost when it was attacked. It will be on display until the end of December.
At the opening, Oleksiy Makeiev, Ukraine's ambassador to Germany, announced that although he'd flown on "almost all AN aircraft, the Mriya remained a dream for me," in a statement released by the company.
"We hope that it will be restored and we will see this mighty bird in the sky again," he added.
In the meantime, if you're missing Mriya, you can build your own -- or, at least, your own model. Ukrainian startup Metal Time is selling working mechanical design kits of the AN-225. Each cost $99, and profits go straight to Antonov to fund the Mriya rebuild, as well as the rehousing of Antonov employees whose homes have been destroyed by the Russian invasion, and training for new Ukrainian pilots and aviation engineers.
PP
https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/anto ... index.html
(CNN) — For avgeeks, the destruction of the world's largest commercial plane was one of the key images at the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. In February, the Antonov AN-225 was attacked at its base in Hostomel, near Kyiv.
"The dream will never die," tweeted the manufacturers when it was destroyed.
Now it looks like they have stayed true to their word, with the company announcing that plans to rebuild it are already underway.
Nicknamed "Mriya" -- Ukrainian for "dream" -- the massive plane was built in the 1980s to carry the Soviet space shuttle.
Its later life, while slightly less glamorous, was equally iconic -- it was the world's largest cargo transporter, with around twice the hold capacity as a Boeing 747, winning cult status among self-styled avgeeks. It stretched to 84 meters, or 275 feet, with the longest wingspan of any fully operational airplane. To date, it is the heaviest aircraft ever built.
The plane's nose took a direct hit, according to CNN journalist Vasco Cotivio, who saw it in April.
Its destruction was announced on February 27 2022, with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeting that "Russia may have destroyed our 'Mriya'... but they will never be able to destroy our dream of a strong, free and democratic European state."
The Antonov Company said at the time that it was unable to verify the condition of the plane, while CNN journalist Vasco Cotovio noted that the nose had apparently taken "a direct artillery hit" and was "completely destroyed" when he saw it on an April visit.
"There was extensive damage to the wings and some of the engines. The tail end section was spared from any large impacts and has a few holes caused by either shrapnel or bullets," he said at the time, predicting that a repair would be unlikely.
On Monday, however, the Antonov Company announced in a tweet that the rebuild project had already begun, with "design work" already in the offing. While it had estimated repair costs, the company predicted a bill of over €500 million ($502 million) to get it back in the air, promising more information "after the victory."
Already the company has around 30% of the components needed to build a new one, it announced.
Originally, Ukrainian state defense company Ukroboronprom, which manages Antonov, had issued a statement estimating the restoration at over $3 billion -- which it vowed to make Russia pay. The rebuild would take at least five years, it said at the time.
It will cost more than $502 million to rebuild, said the company.
The announcement coincides with the launch of an exhibition dedicated to the plane at Leipzig/Halle Airport in Germany, which is home to five other Antonov aircraft. "Light and shadow: The Antonov story" shows photos of the aircraft before and after its destruction, focusing on the engineering prowess that was lost when it was attacked. It will be on display until the end of December.
At the opening, Oleksiy Makeiev, Ukraine's ambassador to Germany, announced that although he'd flown on "almost all AN aircraft, the Mriya remained a dream for me," in a statement released by the company.
"We hope that it will be restored and we will see this mighty bird in the sky again," he added.
In the meantime, if you're missing Mriya, you can build your own -- or, at least, your own model. Ukrainian startup Metal Time is selling working mechanical design kits of the AN-225. Each cost $99, and profits go straight to Antonov to fund the Mriya rebuild, as well as the rehousing of Antonov employees whose homes have been destroyed by the Russian invasion, and training for new Ukrainian pilots and aviation engineers.
PP
Re: Anotov AN-225 "destroyed" in Ukraine
Encouraging news - it would be a shame if it wasn't rebuilt.
Re: Anotov AN-225 "destroyed" in Ukraine
This was embedded in the article about rebuilding the 225.
I am tempted to by this model kit. Unfortunately, also tempted by the Boeing 314 and DC-3 kits as well.
PP
I am tempted to by this model kit. Unfortunately, also tempted by the Boeing 314 and DC-3 kits as well.
PP