It is the end of a dream project in aviation.

The world's largest cargo plane, the only Antonov An-225 ever built, was destroyed in the war in Ukraine.

In her home country, the beefy large aircraft with six engines was nicknamed "Mriya" - in German that means dream.

Timo Kotowski

Editor in Business.

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In the first week of the war at the end of February, the plane was hit by a Russian attack at Ukraine's Hostomel airport.

The An-225 was still there because of a planned maintenance stop.

After the Russian withdrawal from the airport, technicians were able to inspect the damage.

Initial hopes of repairing the "Mriya" have been dashed given the extent of the damage.

All that remains of the tip with the cockpit is debris, the front section has broken off the fuselage, and several engines have been destroyed.

The state-owned Ukrainian industrial group Ukroboronprom estimates the cost of a reconstruction or a new construction at 3 billion euros – probably too much.

The world's largest cargo plane is history.

Giant plane was a major Soviet project

A dispute has broken out in Ukraine over whether the plane could have been brought to safety from Russian attacks with great symbolic power.

The management of Antonov Airlines is accused of delaying the decision about a technically possible transfer flight to Leipzig.

The previous An-225 pilot Dmytro Antonow, who coincidentally has the same name as the plane, had made the allegations public on the Internet.

Antonov boss Sergei Bychkov has since had to vacate his post.

The An-225 came from Soviet plans.

The aircraft was developed to transport Buran space shuttles from the Soviet rival project to the American space shuttles.

In order to be able to take Buran ferries on the top of the fuselage, the plane could not get a tail fin in the middle of the fuselage.

It would have been in air turbulence in flight but was replaced by two widely spaced rudders at the rear.

Nine meters longer than A380

Shortly before Christmas 1988, the first and to date the only An-225 took off on its maiden flight.

However, the end of the Soviet Buran space project meant that the An-225 was shut down after just a few years.

After the turn of the millennium, however, she returned as a cargo plane for special orders in the service of the Ukrainian Antonov Airlines.

Compared to currently built aircraft, the An-225 was not particularly efficient in operation, although it underwent a major overhaul in 2020.

The advantage of the model was that it could carry bulky cargo that does not fit on other planes.

The An-225 was almost nine meters longer than an A380, which is the largest passenger aircraft in the world.

Fully loaded and fully fueled, the An-225 was allowed to weigh around 640 tons at take-off, around 70 tons more than an A380.