190 Ton World Record Airlift By Antonov An-225

After a lengthy refit and life extension program in Antonov Design Bureau's facilities in Kiev during the first part of this year the Antonov An-225 has claimed a new world record airlift out of Frankfurt Hahn Airport.

Antonov-225 in new livery. Click to Enlarge

Antonov Airlines’ An-225 'Mriya' is the only example of the heavy-lift freighter, the world’s largest operational aircraft with a maximum gross weight of 640 tonnes (1,411,000 lb) and payload of 250 tonnes.

The aircraft now sports a new livery featuring the blue and yellow national colours of Ukraine.

The world record lift was 16.2m (53ft)-long generator destined for a gas plant in Armenia.  Following earlier extremely heavy loads which took rather longer to complete the loading methods and equipment have clearly improved considerably as the aircraft arrived in Hahn on 11 August and departed on the 12th before returning for a second large piece the following day making the carriage of such extraordinary pieces look routine.

The total cargo load totalled 190 tonnes including the loading frame with the generator weighing in 187.6t.

An-225 World Record Lift	An-225 World Record Lift
An-225 World Record Lift