41

yeah.....that last picture is the An-124, not the AN-225.

scratch that....the last two pictures are the An-124 and not the An-225.

Anton design bureau has always made some great products. I would very much like to ride along on 124 or 225 serie.

Despite many attempts americans haven't been able to build such a massive aircraft, even though the russians built this decades ago. The russians were also the first in space. They are far superior engineers than americans. Also europeans have built larger passenger aircrafts than americans.

The 225 is a rebuilded version of the 124 (#41) and was designed to carry the Buran on It's back. #37

No they haven't, but the Lockheed Martin C5A was designed in the 60's and is still flying today doing the job it was designed to do.

The 225? oh wait that’s right there’s only one because Russia went belly up.

yeah... it's true! the americans are still flying really old planes... i guess they can't afford better ones since they are in such a huge debt to china.

they call him FATTY!

The western world was limited by external requirements, which made the design and manufacturing of planes like this impossible. Mainly the requirement for the design, building and operation to be economically profitable. If Boeing or MD would be contracted to build a plane like this they would have to get a positive balance on the bottom line. It is just not possible because of the limited use this plane sees.

Soviets did not have profitability requirements. Antonov design bureau and the plane factories did not have to make profit, so they could throw an excess amount of resources to military projects like this and actually succeed. That is also the reason why Soviet Union no longer exists while most western countries just keep going on. :)

But who cares and why should this matter?