Meanwhile # 1 | October 2003 |
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Its big, very big. Bigger than any Jumbo Boeing you might have seen before. In fact, it’s the biggest thing with wings on in the world! © MEANWHILE |
The Antonov An-225 |below| was designed to carry soldiers with their weapons, tanks, trucks and even a helicopter or two in one go to the battlefield. The Russian space agency uses it to piggyback space shuttles on its back for flight-testing and transport to launch sites. You can carry pretty much anything in it, from vehicles and other aircraft right through to a small herd of elephant… The Russian aircraft industry is still recovering from the collapse of the soviet union and the subsequent entry into the capitalist world. It might never return to its former glory where progress had no budget limit but its legacy will remain in the skies for some time to come. |
