Antonov An-225 Mriya © David W Cerny / Reuters
Posted on 09/01/2016 3:28:45 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
Ukrainian aircraft manufacturer Antonov and China’s Aerospace Industry Corporation have signed a deal which will facilitate the serial production of the world’s largest aircraft, the AN-225 Mriya (‘Dream’), in China.
Negotiations between the two enterprises have been held since May 2016 and the deal was signed on August 30 in Beijing.
“On August 30, Antonov [Company] and Aerospace Industry Corporation of China (AICC) signed an agreement on cooperation on the AN-225 project,” Antonov’s press service said in a statement, UNIAN news agency reported.
The company added that cooperation between the two companies include the projected construction of the second aircraft of its kind in Ukraine and its handover to China at the first stage of the project, as well as the creation of an aircraft production line under a Ukrainian license in China at the second stage.
Representatives of Antonov Company told UNIAN that each stage of the project will be implemented under a separate contract. The two companies did not reveal any further details about the agreement and said nothing about the project deadlines or the planned numbers of the AN-225 aircraft set to be built in China.
Earlier, China’s CCTV Channel said on its Facebook page that Antonov Company sold all manufacturing rights and technological documents for the super-heavy air freighter AN-225 Mriya to the China Aerospace company. It added that the first AN-225 could be produced in China as early as in 2019.
(Excerpt) Read more at rt.com ...
Antonov An-225 Mriya © David W Cerny / Reuters
So I’m wondering what heavy war asset does China need to be mobile by using this thing. Missile defense suite? Target engagement radars? Main battle tanks?
Impressive aircraft. I worked on a project in Taiwan that required lots of heavy industrial equipment. This was used to get it there. The only problem for a “serial production” of these is that the number of cargo ships anchored all around the world rusting away keeps growing. But then again, with a fleet of these and the time it takes to wait on slow boats from China, there may be a growing market for their services.
Yummy. Russia and China working together.
I spoke with the US sales rep for Volga-Dnepr (operator of commercial Antonov services) and he told me that the Russia civil aviation authorities were blocking the upgrade to glass cockpit and more modern Western engines to keep the work inside Russia. Complacency breeds competition.
Russia? I thought it said Ukraine?
There’s barely a demand for aircraft with four engines.
We had it fly into RDU several yrs. ago to pick up a huge generator for delivery to Africa.
Went to the airport on a drizzly night to watch it take off.
Biggest takeaway. Surprisingly quiet.
Now THAT is .....YUGE!
It's just too much chit to try and keep up with. d:^)
Ukraine had a significant advantage over Russia as several high-tech research facilities and industries of the Soviet era were located there. They never made a big effort to capitalise on it though the Chinese have used that expertise a lot.
If anything, Ukraine is playing catch up.
I’ve read that an auto racing team uses one of these to move all their cars, equipment and crews to various racing sites. One trip takes everything. Apparently better than having everything travel on the road.
Yup.
There has been only one An-225 ever built, so they must be using something else.
LOL. It’ll run out of fuel before the end of the runway and take-off...
What would a radar screen look like when a fleet of these heads in to our west coast in “Red Dawn III”?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.