Antonov An-225 Mriya

The Antonov An-225 Mriya, whose Ukrainian name means dream and whose NATO reporting name was Cossack, was a large strategic airlift cargo aircraft designed and produced by the Antonov Design Bureau in the Soviet Union. Work began in 1984 at the request of the Soviet government for an airlifter to replace the Myasishchev VM-T, and it was meant to carry the boosters of the Energia rocket and Buran-class orbiters for the Soviet space program. It enlarged the An-124 with extra fuselage sections and a new wing centre that carried a further pair of Progress D-18T turbofan engines, six in all. Its maiden flight was on 21 December 1988. Only one aircraft was ever completed, and a second airframe was partly built but never finished. After brief use in the space program it was mothballed in the early 1990s. The only completed An-225 was destroyed in the Battle of Antonov Airport during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.