[sukhoi-30mki]

Antonov An-225 Mriya © David W Cerny / Reuters

[Gaffer]

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?

[mazda77]

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.

[fivecatsandadog]

Yummy. Russia and China working together.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

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.

[Moonman62]

There’s barely a demand for aircraft with four engines.

[Vinnie]

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.

[nikos1121]

Here's a drawing of it.

[faucetman]

Now THAT is .....YUGE!

[CopperTop]

Wait... what? I must be out of it. Last I heard Ukraine was "war-torn", "ravaged", the capital is overrun yadda, yadda, yadda.
So now they're in on building this behemoth of a plane and colluding with China?

It's just too much chit to try and keep up with. d:^)

[blam]

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.

[Chode]

the up engined version

[fella]

What would a radar screen look like when a fleet of these heads in to our west coast in “Red Dawn III”?