“It’s also quite possible that it will be considered appropriate to make additional changes to the aircraft design, based on the operating experience of the original.” Unfortunately, that appears to be almost inevitable: “It’s pointless to build an aircraft today with a 40-year-old design,” Sovenko adds. As far as I know, it was practically undamaged during the Russian artillery bombardment of the plant,” says Sovenko.Įxperts say it's unlikely the original airplane will ever be restored to its former glory. In other words, almost a complete airframe. “This is a completely finished fuselage, with a new center section already installed on it, as well as the load-carrying structure of the wings and the tail unit. It was part of an original plan to build two AN-225s, which never panned out. He refers to the second AN-225 airframe that Antonov has preserved to this day in a large workshop in Kyiv. “It’s impossible to talk about the repair or restoration of this aircraft – we can only talk about the construction of another Mriya, using individual components that can be salvaged from the wreckage and combining them with those that were, back in the 1980s, intended for the construction of a second aircraft.” Sovenko, who wrote a book about the history of Antonov Airlines detailing his experience of flying on the Mriya, concurs that the plane at Hostomel can’t be repaired. The AN-225 sustained major damage during the battle for Hostomel airfield near Kyiv. Most of the six engines also seem intact, and the whole tail section of the plane is affected just by shrapnel damage, leaving it in acceptable condition. It’s not all bad news: portions of the wings, including aerodynamic surfaces such as flaps and ailerons, appear to have suffered minor damage, and they could be salvageable. “They are simply no longer being made, so it’s unlikely that they can be restored exactly in the way they were,” he says.
“This is due to the fact that most of the various electrical systems, pumps and filters used on the AN-225 are all from the 1980s. “Restoring them will be the hardest,” he says. He confirms that the center section of the fuselage and the nose of the plane – including the cockpit and the crew rest compartments – are destroyed, but it’s the plane’s onboard systems and equipment that received the most critical damage. Gilles Leimdorfer/AFP/Getty ImagesĪndrii Sovenko, a Kyiv-based engineer and aviation expert who has worked for the Antonov Company since 1987 and has flown on the AN-225 as part of its technical crew, has compiled a detailed list of the damage, by looking at a large number of videos and pictures of the wreckage (Antonov personnel are not yet allowed back at Hostomel due to safety concerns). The AN-225 was created as part of the Soviet space program to carry the Soviet space shuttle "Burane" on its back. “Had it not been for the direct hit on the nose, the AN-225 might have been repairable,” he says, adding that the area surrounding the plane was littered with spent ammunition, obliterated Russian tanks and trucks and destroyed armored vehicles. The tail end section was spared from any large impacts and has a few holes caused by either shrapnel or bullets. “In addition to that, there was extensive damage to the wings and some of the engines. “The nose of the plane was completely destroyed, seemingly the victim of a direct artillery hit,” Cotovio says. The condition of the plane left no doubts regarding the possibility of a repair. “They seemed to have had some initial success, but the Ukrainian response was very quick, hitting the airfield fast and strong – to prevent any sort of landing,” he says. To do that, they mounted an air assault with attack helicopters. “Moscow’s forces tried to seize the airfield to use it as a forward operating position to which they could fly in additional land units.
The world's biggest commercial airplane, the AN-225, was famous around the world.
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