Another one of the top stories in 2022 was the destruction of one of Ukraine’s national treasures, the giant Antonov An-225, by many metrics the world’s largest plane. Built to transport the Soviet Union’s Space Shuttle, called Buran, the An-225 was nicknamed Mryia (for Dream). But when Russian forces invaded Ukraine earlier this year, they hit the airport where the plane is housed. Whether or not the giant was intentionally destroyed or not is not known and maybe never will be. And early on, there was hope that the plane somehow escaped with repairable damage, but later photographs show that it was destroyed where it sat in its hangar. Most of the tooling used to originally build the plane 40 years ago still exists, reportedly, but the billion-dollar effort to build another An-225 at this point is also merely a dream.
Antonov An-225 Destroyed
Key Takeaways:
- The Antonov An-225 "Mriya," the world's largest plane and a Ukrainian national treasure, was destroyed in 2022 during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
- Russian forces hit the airport where the An-225 was housed, though it remains unknown whether the destruction was intentional.
- Initial hopes that the plane sustained repairable damage were later dispelled by photographs confirming its complete destruction in its hangar.
- A "billion-dollar effort" to rebuild the An-225 is currently considered merely a dream, despite the reported existence of original tooling.
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