The unique AN-225 has been destroyed by the Russian army

I had the luck of seeing this plane on approach to IAH airport while driving in Houston.

For the first few minutes, it looked like a normal size plane, but felt too low and too slow. Then for the next few minutes, it kept getting bigger and bigger. Then I saw it had 6 engines. And a tail wing that seemed as large as a normal plane’s wingspan. I was lucky that it crossed right in front of me as I was near the airport (about 2.5 miles from the runway). It looked so low, so slow, and just massive. I went home and figured out what it was by googling it. That time it was transporting part of an oil rig.

I tried to find it to go see again ever since, but I could never get a clear schedule and it didn’t line up with where I was in the world. I was telling my wife the other week that this was something I’d like to seek out. It’s something that anyone on this site, aviation enthusiast or not, would have appreciated seeing.

This war is useless. The loss of life and destruction of homes and materials is a waste.

It takes real courage to destroy such a massive and beautiful piece of engineering that had no military value and spent the last two years bringing Covid-19 vaccines and supplies around the world.