World's largest plane lands at world's biggest airport in Dubai
Dubai hosted the world’s largest plane on Tuesday, when Antonov An-225 Mriya touched down at the Al Maktoum International Airport.
The eventual target for Al Maktoum International is a capacity of more than 200 million passengers a year, and it will become the world’s largest global gateway once completed.
Antonov An-225 Mriya, the six-engine aircraft, was built to transport the Buran, the Soviet space shuttle. It is now used for cargo no other plane can handle.
As per the $32bn expansion project announced by Dubai Airports in September 2014, the Al Maktoum International Airport – located in Dubai South – will become the world’s biggest airport with an ultimate capacity in excess of 200 million passengers per year. It will have a final cargo capacity of 16 million tonnes per annum.
According to the quarterly traffic report issued by operator Dubai Airports, passenger traffic at Dubai World Central surged 79.8 per cent in the first quarter of 2016.
The Antonov An-225 Mriya was made in Ukraine, and Mriya means ‘Dream’ (Inspiration) in Ukrainian. It is powered by six turbofan engines and is the longest and heaviest airplane ever built, with a maximum takeoff weight of 640 tonnes (710 short tons).
It also has the largest wingspan of any aircraft in operational service. The single example built has the Ukrainian civil registration UR-82060. A second airframe was partially built; its completion was halted because of lack of funding and interest.
According to Flight Global, after the termination of the Russian space programme, the An-225 was mothballed from 1994 until 2002.
It was then refurbished and re-introduced, and is in commercial operation with Antonov Airlines carrying oversized payloads.
According to the official records maintained by Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI), the airlifter holds the absolute world records for an airlifted single item payload of 189,980 kilograms (418,834 pounds), and an airlifted total payload of 253,820 kg (559,577 lb).