[ad_1]
Hostomel, Ukraine (CNN) The sheared nose cone of an Antonov An-225 freighter towers over Yevhen Bashynsky.
Affectionately known as Mriya, or “Dream,” the Leviathan plane was the pride of Ukraine and one of its pilots, 38-year-old Baczynski.
This is the first time Bacsinszky has returned to see the wreckage of Mriya.
“It’s very difficult to be here and see all of this. The planes have been destroyed, the hangars have been destroyed. It’s very difficult to see,” he says.
During the first hours of the war, elite Russian paratroopers landed at Antonov airfield, Hostmer’s main cargo airport northwest of Kiev. It was supposed to be an anchor point for attacking the capital. The attack did not go according to plan. The Russian forces inside the airport were surrounded and had no chance to bring in reinforcements immediately.
Rumors quickly spread in the aviation industry that Mriya had been damaged in battle. The extent of the destruction became apparent when Ukrainian forces recaptured the airport.
The Ukrainian Security Service said on Wednesday it had launched a joint investigation with the state police into the failure of the former president of state-owned Antonov to order a plan to move the plane to a safe location in Germany.
The Antonov An-225 was destroyed in the first hours of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The Mriya was designed for top-of-the-line aviation when it flew. It’s the heaviest plane in the world. Longest wingspan of any active carrier. Six turbofan engines with over 50,000 pounds of thrust each. 250 tons carrying capacity.
Only one was completed and first flew in 1988. It was designed to carry the Buran spacecraft, the Soviet Union’s answer to NASA’s space shuttle, on its back. However, after the independence of Ukraine, Antonov refurbished the plane several times.
In the early 2000s, Mriya relaunched as a commercial venture. Ruslan Bykovets, director of Antonov’s cargo division, said it found an important niche after a slow start.
Satellites, transformers, water supplies after the hurricane, the Ukrainian giant carried everything, he says. Delivering critical medical shipments during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Pilot Yevhen Bashynsky said flying the Mriya “was like feeling part of something great.”
The Antonov An-255 is also known as Mriya, or “Dream”.
Pilot Bacsinski said that the plane was difficult to control on the ground, but was fun to fly.
“You know what it’s like to feel like you’re part of something great. You were in touch with something great,” he says.
“You get a lot of attention, so it was also a big responsibility. A few days after the flight, you can open up YouTube and see everything you’ve done.”
Last May, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine would rebuild the plane, perhaps feeling its symbolic importance to Ukraine.
Antonov officials say another An-225 was partially built but abandoned in the 1990s due to lack of funding. The current plan is to use what they already have as the basis for a new plane.
Engineers and technicians scour the remains of Hostomel’s Mriya for useful parts. Antonov’s designer, Valery Kostyuk, will eventually try to remove one of the giant wings and put it back on.
“Aircraft will be equipped with modernized engines. New electronic onboard equipment will be installed on the planes. Well-known companies will be involved,” he says.
It is not clear which companies they are and how Ukraine can afford to build the aircraft, nor has it been made clear by company officials. It’s impossible to say exactly, but some estimates put it at nearly US$1 billion. Antonov executive Bykovets understands that it is not the top priority for a war-torn country.
Still, he says he should.
“This plane is a symbol of Ukraine,” he says. “It’s a symbol like the Burj Khalifa or the Statue of Liberty.”
[ad_2]
Source link