The An-225 transport plane should not be unfamiliar, as it is the largest transport plane in the world. Especially when you see the comparison photos of the An-225 transport plane with other planes at the airport, you will feel very shocked. In front of the An-225 transport plane, ordinary planes are as delicate and delicate as children. How big is the An-225 transport plane?

The birth of the An-225 transport aircraft was developed to transport the Blizzard space shuttle. The Blizzard space shuttle has a length of 36.37 meters and a wingspan of 23.92 meters. The An-225 transport aircraft specifically designed to transport this space shuttle is even larger, with a body length of 84 meters, a wingspan of 88.4 meters, a height of 18.2 meters, and a wing area of 905.0 square meters. That is to say, the fuselage height of the An-225 transport plane is almost equivalent to five or six floors, and the takeoff weight reaches 640 tons. The photo of the An-225 transport plane carrying the Blizzard space shuttle also shows a significant difference in size between the two aircraft.

Recently, everyone has been concerned about the safety of the An-225 transport plane, as some satellites have taken photos of the airport, indicating that the An-225 transport plane has been destroyed. However, there have been rumors circulating online that the An-225 transport plane has been destroyed, which has become a topic of concern for everyone. Unfortunately, on March 4, 2022, a video was released confirming the destruction of the An-225 transport plane.

Although the satellite had already detected the clues before, due to the high altitude of the satellite and the obstruction of the airport apron, the satellite cannot directly see the current situation of the aircraft inside the apron. After the reporter arrived at the airport, it was confirmed that the An-225 transport plane was indeed destroyed. Once the world's largest transport plane, its current condition has become unrecognizable, with its huge nose and fuselage separated on the ground, but the fuselage structure is still relatively intact.

Recently, many satellites have been tracking the situation of the An-225 transport plane, and these satellites have also taken photos of the airport. For example, China's SAR remote sensing satellite "Haisi No.1" took photos of the airport, and the remote sensing satellite of Planet Laboratory in the United States also took photos of this airport. Although both photos were taken on the same day and at the same location, the clarity of the two photos appears to be quite different. Our satellite photos do not have as high clarity as theirs, and theirs are color photos, while ours are black and white photos.

The differences in these photos are ultimately related to the functionality of the satellite, not because our satellite photography technology is inadequate. The satellite of the United States is an optical remote sensing satellite that can take color photos. And our Hise-1 is a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite, which emits microwaves to the ground. The ground reflects the microwaves back into space, and the reflected signals can be imaged by the radar satellite, resulting in black and white images. Although our photos are black and white, there are also many advantages compared to optical satellites. For example, in bad weather conditions, it is difficult for optical satellites to take pictures of the ground, but radar satellites can. For example, the Hubble telescope can capture colorful photos, while our radio telescope cannot. This is not to say that radio telescopes are not as advanced as the Hubble telescope. On the contrary, these satellites with different functions can actually complement each other very well.

As the transport aircraft with the highest takeoff weight and load capacity, only one An-225 transport aircraft has completed construction work. The only An-225 transport aircraft has been destroyed, which means that there are no An-225 transport aircraft that can fly. Will there be any new An-225 transport planes coming up next?

The original purpose of developing the An-225 transport aircraft was to transport the space shuttle, but now that the space shuttle has been retired, it may not be necessary to manufacture a brand new An-225 transport aircraft. But this does not mean that there will no longer be An-225 transport planes in the world. Because at the time of manufacturing the An-225 transport plane, the second An-225 transport plane was also in the process of construction and was already 70% completed. However, with the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the second An-225 transport plane was also sealed off.

Although the construction work of the second An-225 transport plane has not been completed yet, after being sealed, the main body of the aircraft is still well maintained, and there is a possibility of further completion of construction. After all, it is much easier to directly complete the construction work of the second An-225 transport plane than to build a brand new An-225 transport plane. Of course, it is still difficult to say whether the second An-225 transport plane will really continue to be built in the future, as the manufacturing cost is high.

Source: Military of Strong Countries