The AN225 is the king of the skies
By Geoffrey Thomas Thu Feb 25, 2016
Andriy Blagovisniy is passionate.
Passionate about his native Ukraine and his company’s giant flagship which is coming to Perth.
And he has good reason.
The Antonov AN225 “Mriya” - the world’s biggest aircraft - was designed and built in Ukraine and is now operated by Kiev-based Antonov Airlines.
Mr Blagovisniy was in Perth this week to discuss the interaction and coordination of the AN225’s first visit to Australia with both the customer and Perth Airport.
The head of commercial for Antonov Airlines beams as he discusses the AN225 Mriya.
“My office overlooks it when it is at our home base, and every time I gaze at it I feel pride in the Antonov company and the might of human mind that made the dream a reality,” said Mr Blagovisniy.
And at the time the thousands of human minds at Antonov were led by General Manager Petr Balabuyev.
“The AN225’s name Mriya is Ukrainian for Dream,” said Mr Blagovisniy.
An aeronautical engineer with a degree in international relations Mr Blagovisniy’s role is to sell the virtues of the AN225 and its smaller brother the AN124.
“It is really unique and can carry cargo no other aircraft can uplift.”
The AN225 performs about two missions a month to all corners of the globe.
Whether its giant turbine blades from China to Denmark, electrical generators from Germany to Armenia or disaster relief from Europe to Japan, the AN255 turns thousands of heads wherever it goes.
“When we flew it to Zagreb, we were informed about 30000 visited the airport during a whole day to see its loading and at Minneapolis - the TV stations covered the arrival live.”
Mr Blagovisniy confirmed more details of the AN225’s visit to Perth which is scheduled now for May.
On route from Europe it will make several stops for refuelling and crew rest on route.
The exact arrival date will not be known till firm confirmation of the readiness of the cargo and it is expected the AN225 will be in Perth for two days before returning to the Ukraine.
Mr Blagovisniy said that usually it takes about 8-10 hours to unload this type of cargo for the resource industry which weighs a massive 135 tonnes.
The weighty cargo is secured on a special frame that spreads the load across the majority of the floor area of the AN225.
Mr Blagovisniy said that the AN225 while built in the late 80s is certified to keep flying through to 2033 as minimum.
In 2013 the Ukrainian Civil Aviation authorities cleared the AN225 for 4000 landings and 20,000 hours of flight and 45 years of operation.
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