World’s Largest Airplane—Destroyed By Russia—To Be Rebuilt After War In Ukraine

There’s never a benefit to war, with the ongoing Ukrainian-Russian conflict displacing millions of residents, damaging historical buildings, and even grounding the world’s largest cargo airplane. 

In a glimmer of hope, state-owned firm Antonov Co announced its plans to rebuild the aircraft—dubbed Mriya, meaning “dream”— once the war ceases. It’s estimated that such a project will cost at least €500 million (US$500 million), though it may be much more expensive. 

At first, Ukroboronprom, the parent company of Antonov, had predicted that repairing the cargo jet would take over five years and more than US$3 billion in expenses. But after a round of evaluation, engineers have posited that 30% of the plane’s original parts could be reused in the construction of the new aircraft. 

According to Jalopnik, the Mriya was originally built as a support plane for the Soviet space program. Meant to be a pair, the second jet was abandoned after the fall of the Soviet Union, leaving just the largest cargo airplane the world has ever seen.

“This was the world’s largest aircraft, AN-225 ‘Mriya’ (‘Dream’ in Ukrainian),” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba wrote in a tweet, attaching an image of the hefty plane. 

“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!” he added. 

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! pic.twitter.com/TdnBFlj3N8

— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) February 27, 2022

[via Interesting Engineering and Jalopnik, cover image via Palinchak | Dreamstime.com]