Antonov AN-225, world's largest cargo aircaft, lands at Hyderabad airport

Antonov An-225 Mriya is the world's largest cargo aircraft and it landed at the Rajiv Gandhi International airport, Hyderabad. It is a wide bodied aircraft powered by six turbofan engines and is the longest and heaviest airplane ever built apart from having the largest wingspan of any aircraft in operational service. It boasts of a maximum takeoff weight of 640 tonnes.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 13 May 2016.

Antonov An-225 has been specially built to undertake transcontinental route airlifting load between 180 to 230 tonnes. The aircraft has landed at Hyderabad after take off from Turkmenistan.
Incidentally, Reliance Defence had recently signed a strategic partnership agreement with Antonov company of Ukraine. As per this agreement, the Indian firm will undertake assembly, manufacture and MRO of Antonov platforms in India, both for the commercial and the military market. The JV will address various requirements including 50-80 seat passenger aircraft program of the HAL, in its basic configuration and in all its variants such as transport, maritime patrol and other military roles.
The AN class of aircraft has long served the Indian Air Force and Navy for over five decades. At present, the IAF has more than 100 AN-32 aircraft in its inventory - these have completed its last life cycle upgrade and will soon be due for replacements.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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