An-225 | Hacker News Reader

An-225

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56 pointstosh32 comments

There's exactly one An-225 in existence.

So if you've ever seen a photo of one, that's the one.

And it's currently right in the middle of a war zone, status unconfirmed.

The airfield was taken by Russian paratroopers, then Ukrainian forces took it back and I think Russian ground troops currently have control.

I wonder why the Ukrainians didn't fly it out while they had control :'(

That would be an awful waste of jet fuel in a country dealing with an invasion. It's an important symbol, but so are a bunch of topped off fighters and more practical transports.

Of the top of my head:

They don’t have complete control of the area let alone airspace

You just don’t turn the key and fly off a plane, especially a plane like this.

Very few people can fly this plane.

The runway is damaged.

There’s no military value to invest a minute thinking about it.

I know there are many sad pandas going around the internets, but when your country is being invaded and people are dying in droves, it’s comical thinking about one plane.

> They don’t have complete control of the area let alone airspace

They well enough time to do it before losing the control

> You just don’t turn the key and fly off a plane, especially a plane like this.

It's just a matter of crew, destination and some money for expenses.

Obviously Antonow C-level preferred not to do anything proactive for their main milk cow, just like they did it all these years.

> Very few people can fly this plane.

> The runway is damaged.

See #1

Again, nobody cares. This is not the moment for such a mundane issue.

Before 24th Feb we can all stay here discussing everything under the Sun, not now.

I think it was an is but now is a was. It exists only in a state of quantum peril at the moment.

I saw a Twitter thread from an air freight logistics expert saying it was destroyed over the weekend. https://twitter.com/typesfast/status/1497656890171396098

Oh crap. I hadn't really thought about the ramifications for global cargo besides the direct losses of the 225 and some 124s - of course with Antonov the company incapacitated, all their aircraft ( even without talking about the huge ones, the smaller ones are heavily used in Africa) will have to be grounded eventually due to lack of spares. (Maybe, just maybe, Russian companies that used to collaborate with them could be able to chip in, but it's not really an option at the moment)

I read "destruction / grounding" as "or", rather than "and". From what I can find in a quick search there's lots of rumours, but nothing confirmed, so who knows at this point.

I expect it’s “destruction or grounding of the Antonov fleet” because not all planes were in Kyiv, and so the planes currently working outside of Ukraine would probably be grounded in the meantime, with the ones at Antonov’s facilities likely destroyed.

The ones outside Ukraine are operational, it seems. A Norwegian army platoon is on the way to Lithuania in one of those, pretty much as we speak.

(Yes, left Oslo 16 minutes ago. https://www.flightradar24.com/ADB5090/2af5a3ab.)

For now, but without spares ( because the Antonov factories are probably destroyed) they'll have to be grounded eventually.

There are some tweets now showing it burning inside a destroyed hangar so it's most likely gone :/

go look on /r/aviation, several threads - one is from a pilot of the an and he confirms it is intact.

That was a few days ago though..

It looks like it was destroyed a few hours ago: https://mobile.twitter.com/Osinttechnical/status/14978766631...

The pictures are grainy but apparently this is it on fire.

https://twitter.com/Osinttechnical/status/149787666311534182...

Kind of hard to tell anything from that picture...

There were supposedly two An-225s - one parked in a safe location, one 70% complete in that hangar. We'll see at some point.

I think the working one was in that hangar (and is likely destroyed) and the incomplete one is elsewhere in Kyiv.

No official update atm: https://mobile.twitter.com/AntonovCompany/status/14979035254...

There are unconfirmed rumours floating the twitterverse that the only An-225 ever built has been destroyed.

https://www.aeroinside.com/16738/antonov-an-225-at-kyiv-host...

Last recorded flight shows a flight from Billund (BLL) to Kyiv (GML) landing at 5:26 PM the 5 Feb 2022.

I have no record of a departing flight.

Re-posting from another thread on this plane

Funny ATC comms when this amazing plane landed in Oakland: https://youtu.be/UFwQiaH5ZsU

The controller has basically arranged an ad-hoc photoshoot, sending planes to the best positions for viewing the Antonov :)

Wow, this ATC comms video really made my morning. I love reading HN to get the latest hot takes on improbably large objects.

It's a fascinating piece of machinery. Antonov Airlines was a very clever way by Antonov to use and promote their heavy duty cargo aircraft ( the An-124, on which the 225 is based, is also pretty big, and the smaller planes can land pretty much on anything as long as it's flat).

It's hard to get a sense of the scale of it from most of those pictures, but the one with a person next to it, just amazing

a company from china is attempting to finish and clone the unfinished airframe if it hasn't been blown up yet.

Do you have any more info on that?

https://simpleflying.com/did-you-know-a-second-antonov-225-w...

That just says there were negotiations with Chinese, nothing concrete. And if the second airframe is still there, it's probably destroyed too.

I think it is a pretty safe bet that it was still there and is destroyed too.

You don't usually fly aircraft until they are at least complete, especially ones this large.

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