Since the time the Wright brothers first flew into the sky, the history of aviation has been enriched by many unique aircraft. They were created to test designs and test unusual solutions and perform special tasks. And although most of them have not become serial, but there are those that have become successful and commercial. In the article we will talk about one such unique model - the largest cargo plane, its creation, history, tragic pages and the current situation in the world cargo aviation system.
Pride of designers
Any designer has special projects in which he reached the heights of professionalism or even surpassed himself. For the Oleg Konstantinovich Antonov Design Bureau (Kiev, Ukraine), the largest cargo plane An-124 Ruslan became such a project. When describing this serial heavyweight of celestial expanses, it is impossible to do without the epithets “unique”, “unsurpassed” and “having no analogues in the world”. In the list of the largest aircraft, Ruslan confidently occupies a leading position among serial cargo aircraft. He set about 21 records, which even today in the world no one could defeat.
Today 24 Ruslana are serving in the Armed Forces of Russia, and 12 are in the commercial management of the domestic airline Volga-Dnepr. The geography of flights of the largest Russian cargo plane covers 190 countries. Over the past 25 years, An-124 aircraft made 33 thousand commercial flights and transported about 60 thousand tons of cargo.
Born in the cold war
This heavy transport aircraft was created primarily for the military. During the years of confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union, aircraft manufacturing and space programs were the first frontiers on the battlefields. Although air transportation is a very expensive and costly affair (it’s more expensive only to fly into space), they don’t count money in a war. That is why military transport aviation in those years received a powerful impetus in development.
In 1965, the light was seen by a heavy transport aircraft with an An-22 turboprop engine , and the USSR pulled ahead, becoming the owner of the largest cargo plane at that time. But in the United States of America, they worked on the Lockheed C-5 Galaxy, which, with a declared carrying capacity of 100 tons, made its first flight in 1968. Today, the American cargo carrier is not a competitor to us - it is in third place in the list of the largest cargo aircraft after the An-22 and An-124. And besides, he can use exclusively concrete runways.
For reference: the French were able to create an Airbus A380-800 - a double-deck cargo aircraft with a carrying capacity of 150 tons only in 2006. And that is not without the help of our designers from Moscow.
But in the Soviet Union they decided to anticipate events. So the experts of Antonov Design Bureau received a new order - to create an aircraft with a carrying capacity of up to 140 tons, in the design of “Product 400”.
No one has done this before.
The task for the designers of Antonov’s design bureau, headed by chief designer P.V. Balabuev, was challenging - to create an aircraft with increased payload, which gives a significant advantage in the speed of deployment of military units and their supply. Difficulties began with the creation of technologies and equipment for working with huge parts.
But by 1971, the Antonovites had already prepared two aircraft designs - with 4 and 6 engines and carrying capacities from 120 to 140 tons. When the first full-size model was created in 1973, its dimensions were amazing. But it was still far from mass production.
Work on the project was continued by a specially created group of specialists from leading institutes and scientific centers of the Soviet Union. And the unique, largest in the world cargo plane Ruslan was created. He became the crown of engineering and design thought of the entire huge power at that time. An-124 made its first test flight in 1982, and journalists and the whole world saw it in 1985. The Ruslan entered service in 1987.
Glory story
In 1985, the An-124 was presented at the Paris Air Show and immediately set 21 records. Including in carrying capacity, and in flight range.
After 1991, when the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics collapsed, the production of these cargo planes came to naught. In 1992, the aircraft was modified (An-124-100), and the last machine left the Ulyanovsk Aircraft Plant in 1995.
The Ulyanovsk Aviastar-SP Aircraft Plant extends the airworthiness of existing aircraft, but by 2025 the Ruslans will be massively decommissioned. And for the An-124-100, a design resource of 50 thousand flight hours is installed . This is 10 sorties and 45 years.
By 2030, according to experts, Russia will need 100 units of this aviation equipment, both military and civilian.
Over the past decade, there has been active discussion about the resumption of serial production of Ruslan. So far, unsuccessfully. There is a demand for these machines in the world, but the cost of one aircraft is 70-100 million dollars, and who will do it is also a big question.
Ruslan is a pearl in the line of heavy trucks
This cargo plane was created according to the classical scheme and is equipped with 4 turbojet engines. Ruslan, the world's largest aircraft, has two decks. Lower - cargo compartment, which is sealed. His floor is made of titanium, and he himself has two cargo hatches - front and rear. This design is quite convenient when loading a variety of, even bulky goods.
The chassis is multi-structured and consists of 24 wheels. They allow the aircraft to use even unpaved runways.
The aircraft is 69 meters long and has a wingspan of 73 meters. Height - 20.78 meters. An airplane without cargo weighs 173 tons, and the maximum take-off weight is 405 tons. The Ruslan can accelerate to 865 km / h, but its cruising speed is 750-800 km / h. The established range is 16.5 thousand kilometers. This colossus is managed by a crew of 6 people.
Existing Modifications
- The basic model of the An-124 Ruslan.
- An-124-100 - aircraft for civilian needs. Removed all military equipment and upgraded the cargo compartment. A total of 54 aircraft were built.
- An-124-100M - modification with improved avionics. The most common aircraft that is currently used for commercial purposes.
- An-124-102 is equipped with more modern control systems. Crew of 3 people.
Helicopters, spaceships and hippos
- The largest cargo plane Ruslan carried a variety of cargoes. Once a half-ring of a gold mining company weighing 50 tons and a cross-section almost right next to the dimensions of the cargo compartment was loaded onto the plane — the gap was 0.77 centimeters.
- In Ruslan, the legendary Pink Floyd band in 1989 brought to Moscow concert equipment weighing 140 tons. But Michael Jackson in 1993 bypassed the British rock band - his equipment was transported by three An-124, because it weighed 310 tons.
- No less interesting cargo was transported by the largest cargo plane Ruslan in 1992 from the United Arab Emirates to Switzerland. These were gold bullion weighing 52 tons.
- The largest cargo plane in Russia and the film industry also contributed. It was he who transported the movie equipment weighing 100 tons for the filming of the Star Wars blockbuster in 1997 from London to Tunisia.
- And in 1997, crocodiles, zebras, four giraffes and a hippo flew from Prague and Indonesia aboard the largest cargo plane in Russia. Everyone was satisfied.
Here it is - the largest cargo plane Ruslan!
A rainy day in the life of Ruslan
That day for Ruslan was Saturday December 6, 1997. It was then that a terrible catastrophe happened with the An-124-100, when 72 people were killed, including the crew. Most likely, due to engine problems, the plane crashed in a residential quarter of Irkutsk.
On that day, the Ruslan of the Russian Air Force flew their Irkutsk to Kamran. On board were 2 Su-27UBK fighters assembled at the Irkutsk Aviation Plant. 3 seconds after departure from the airfield, 3 out of 4 engines failed. In addition to the crew and passengers, 49 residents of the Aviostroiteley microdistrict (Irkutsk) died. Among them - 14 children. More than 70 families of the city were left without a roof over their heads. Leaked aviation fuel burned for several hours.
The reasons for this tragedy remained a mystery, because the flight recorders were badly damaged during the crash. Then, a government commission worked in Irkutsk, which came to the conclusion about the shortcomings in the operation of three aircraft engines.
There is a version that the formation of ice in the fuel led to surging and stopping the engines. This, in turn, was caused by the excess water content in aviation fuel.
Today, on the site of the tragedy in Irkutsk stands the Church of the Nativity of Christ.
Unique and unique
And yet, the largest cargo plane in the world is the Ruslan’s sister, the An-225 Mriya. This unit exists in a single copy and is designed in just 3 years. From 1985 to 1988, Antonov Design Bureau worked on a model whose main task was to transport the first Soviet space shuttle Buran. The work was carried out so quickly also because the Mriya was created on the basis of successfully tested Ruslana units.
But 2 engines were added to the An-225, the chassis has seven racks, and the cargo compartment has been significantly changed. In May 1989, this giant made its first flight from Baikonur to Kiev with a Buran on its back. The spacecraft was not destined to plow open spaces of space, but the Mriya made a splash at the air show in Paris in the same year.
Mriya set 240 world records, including the transportation of the heaviest (253 tons) cargo and the heaviest and monolithic (188 tons) cargo. An-225 and today remains the largest cargo aircraft in the world.
Flying cosmodrome is not destined to become
The general tasks of the An-225 Mriya were grandiose: the transportation of goods weighing up to 250 tons (the plane itself weighs the same), continental and intercontinental flights with a cargo of up to 200 tons, and the transportation of goods up to 200 tons by external load.
But the most daunting task - this largest cargo plane was to become a launching pad for spacecraft, a kind of first stage of a spaceship. Unfortunately, with the collapse of the USSR, the Air Launch project stopped. Although with the reusable space shuttle "Buran" on the back, "Mriya" flew up to 14 times.
"Mriya" in the ranks
From 1991 to 2000, the aircraft dusted around in hangars. And only then was the modernization and the dream of “Mriya” - the sky - fulfilled. Since that time, this unique cargo plane participated in many humanitarian missions (tsunamis in Samoa, the earthquake in Haiti and Japan), transported thousands of tons of cargo and made many unique flights.
And in May 2016, the Mriya cargo plane became a commercial project. It was then that the plane landed in Australia, which unspeakably pleased the residents.