The massive Antonov AN-225 Mriya (Dream) flies to Paris Le-Bourget for the Paris Air Show with the Soviet Spacecraft Buran on its back. This was the first appearance of the Antonov An-225 on the west side of the iron curtain.
The An-225 was specially designed to carry the Buran and was based on the Antonov An-124 cargo aircraft.
At take-off from Kiev the aircraft take-off weight was a staggering 1.234.600 lbs (more the 560 tons), the greatest weight ever lifted into the air by an aircraft. A record that still stands today.
The An-225 holds several records in the "weight category", they were covered in a blog on the An-225, click here to go to that blog.
Another first at this airshow was the debut of the Sukhoi Su-27 to the western world, it was also the first time that the "Cobra" manoeuvre was shown outside the USSR.
Comments