An-225 destruction image analysis | Hacker News Reader

An-225 destruction image analysis

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101 pointsdogma113826 comments

Too bad it couldn't been moved before the war. From an aviation perspective a sad loss, but it pales compared to all the human tragedy happening right now. Most of all, saving and restoring Ukraine as a country should be the focus and who knows, there might be some push to rebuild it as a symbol, perhaps upgraded with modern technology. May be even a bit larger with some mordern engines :)

The shelling of Ukrainian cities with missiles started right after Putin finished his speech at about 5:00 am local. Starting and ramping up the engines of Mriya might take time plus pilots are also likely living some distance away, plus fueling, plus flight plan, et al. Well... noone could imagine that a civil plane will be the explicit target.. and noone expected such a turn of history and all the non-millitary directed violance and destruction of civil building and infrastructure done by Russian army.

I read it was parked for maintenance and couldn’t be flown out in time. Really sad.

Even if they could I think symbolically they might have chosen not to get it out of the country.

There's another uncompleted airframe and if I recall correctly Turkey did show some inclination to finish it with Ukraine, so maybe after the war ends

Confirmation from the Ukrainian minister of foreign affairs

https://mobile.twitter.com/DmytroKuleba/status/1497947370008...

Edit: official confirmation from Ukraine’s primary account

https://mobile.twitter.com/Ukraine/status/149796151448090214...

The phrasing does not read like a solid confirmation to me:

> This was the world’s largest aircraft, AN-225 ‘Mriya’ (‘Dream’ in Ukrainian). Russia may have destroyed our ‘Mriya’. But they will never be able to destroy our dream of a strong, free and democratic European state. We shall prevail!

Sounds more like some inspirational message, using the rumors of plane's destruction.

EDIT: tweets by Antonov with more reserved wording:

https://twitter.com/AntonovCompany/status/149790352542613094...

https://twitter.com/AntonovCompany/status/149796783633704140...

https://mobile.twitter.com/Ukraine/status/149796151448090214...

@Dang can you please change the title and the link?

It's not yet confirmed:

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

From Antonov Company: "Update on the information of #AN225 "Mriya" aircraft: Currently, until the AN-225 has been inspected by experts, we cannot report on the technical condition of the aircraft.

Stay tuned for further official announcement."

Tangential question, but I figure the people who might know the answer would be in this thread.

Two days ago, there was news about two II-76s being shot down[1]. A US senator (Rubio) even seemed to imply it[2]. Since then, I haven't seen anything about it. Is there any indication that this did/didn't happen?

[1] https://twitter.com/rgilliescanada/status/149742872547813376...

[2] https://twitter.com/marcorubio/status/1497348285333389313

I’m fairly certain the Ukrainian government confirmed they did (sorry, not sure of the source), with russian 240 casualties as a result, but whether or not that’s propaganda, fog of war, or the truth is not clear to me.

Frankly with the colossal amount of video footage documenting Russia's other air and land losses there's very little incentive for Ukrainian government to make that up.

Yeah, but all their other statements actually have coverage, so the one event that doesn’t (as far as I know) feels a bit iffy.

What a pity, such a beautiful bird, my dad used to work in Antonov Bureau and she was a great pride for him and for all the ukrainian people. Her Ukrainian name is "Dream" btw.

It's a shame it got destroyed, a beautiful piece of machinery. I don't think the company will ever rebuilt it, they already were hesitant on building another AN-225 due to cost concerns.

couldn’t they license the designs to other companies to manufacture them?

They could but I don't think it will be financially practical for an Aerospace company to set up a manufacturing line to just to manufacture 1 or 2 of the 225's.

It would also require quite a revamp, I guess, if anyone wanted to build it anew, those designs are quite dated (I mean, everything inside it)

The design is also very unique due to requirements that were put for it. Pretty much no one put similar equipment, and it's a wonder that it was "un-mothballed" at all and put itself on map again.

It was crucial for both commercial and humanitarian efforts, but no bean counter would approve building such design normally.

> they already were hesitant on building another AN-225 due to cost concerns.

Very astutely note. EU was trying to block Ukrainian defence industry for decades. They had a cargo plane design which beaten Airbus 400 on 33 out 34 tender points on EU defence tender, and still lost.

A Chinese company has a 70% complete AN 225 hopefully Antonov Airlines can buy it back and finish it.

That's also sitting in a hangar in Ukraine.

i saw this plane flying over my home

never going to forget how big it looks in the sky

I've been once near Mriya during an airshow in Gostomel, at that time (2008) it didn't yet have a ukrainian-flag-coloured stripes on its fuselage. Since I use that photo for an avatar, I always wanted to see it again and update it, but then Covid happened and now this...

So sad.., I remember as child going to Neuquen airport (Patagonia Argentina) to see the aircraft when was there

This is just too bad. It was unique.

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