The "Big Ant" Returns to Le Bourget

The first time it came to the Show was in 1989, and it caused a sensation by carrying a Buran space shuttle on its back-the raison d'etre of this six-engined monster from Antonov. Named An-225 Myria ("Dream") by its creators and "Cossack" by NATO, the world's largest aircraft appeared at the following year's Farnborough show, but then languished in parallel with the Buran and, eventually, the Soviet Union itself.

In now-independent Ukraine, Antonov, among others, subsequently began to pick up lucrative Western contracts for aerial transport of oversize loads in its An-124s. These C-5 Galaxy-sized four-jets, of which the 225 may be regarded as a stretched, twin-finned version, remain in low volume production, so it was logical that thoughts should turn to getting the even bigger "Ant" back into the air. After expenditure of $20 million on replacing engines and avionics cannibalized for other aircraft, the majestic Myria returned to the skies on May 7.

Next target, if the market response is favorable, will be to resume work on the incomplete second aircraft, which has been gathering dust at Gostomel, Ukraine, for a decade: a $50 million job. With heavy-lift specialist Volga-Dnepr predicting a requirement for up to three An-225s and others looking at following suit, Aviastar at Ulyanovsk, Russia, has revealed that it will consider building the aircraft there. One option would be to use Western engines, such as the Rolls-Royce Trent 892 or Pratt & Whitney PW4098, in place of the Progress D-18Ts.

By Paul Jackson