With the apparent confirmation that the Antonov An-225 Mryia (for The Dream) was destroyed by invading Russian forces at its home airport of Gostomel, outside of the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, a 30-plus year reign at the top of the air transport food chain is over. The An-225 was a true marvel, a Ukrainian creation that the Ukrainian people rightly took great pride in. It was the heaviest airplane of all time, at a max takeoff weight of better than 1.4 million pounds, it featured a payload of better than a half a million pounds, it had a range of better than 8,000 nm (though a fraction of that with a big payload), and a wingspan of 290 feet, or just about a football field in span. Though it was created in order to carry the Soviet Union’s Buran space shuttle aloft, it spent most of its life carrying huge payloads, in terms of size and weight, payloads no other plane in the world could carry aloft. While the death, loss and suffering of the Ukrainian people is at the front of all our minds, this giant of a nation’s dream was a symbol for the needless attempted destruction of a people’s heritage, hopes and dreams in the service of a power-hungry regime. The Ukrainian people are united in this one thought: It won’t work, and we concur. Long live the dream.
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