World’s largest plane pays flying visit to Shannon

The world’s largest airplane made a rare visit to Shannon Airport yesterday with over 100 plane spotters from all over the country arriving to catch a glimpse.

The Antonov 225 Mriya, meaning Dream, was designed and built by the Antonov Design Bureau in the Ukraine and first flew on Dec 21, 1988.

The six-engined monster is now operated by Antonov Airlines, the transport arm of the Antonov Company, and holds over 300 world records for transporting oversized loads.

Because of its size, the An-225 requires a runway of between 3,000m and 3,500m in length to take off, making Shannon’s runway, at 3199m (10,486ft), the only one in Ireland capable of handling the plane.

The plane is so big that an inspection of the runway had to be carried out after it landed to ensure no damage was caused to the surface and no debris was left behind.

The plane’s wingspan of 88.4m (290ft) is 90ft wider than the runway at Shannon which is 61m (200ft) wide including 8m (26ft) of shoulder on each side.

The six-storey high jet was designed mainly to transport the Russian space shuttle ‘Buran’ to its launch site. The shuttle was carried externally on top of the fuselage.

With the end of the Buran space programme in 1994, the An-225 was taken out of service and left to rust at an airfield near Kiev. Several efforts were made to return the giant to service and eventually in May 2001, following a $20m refurbishment programme, the 225 flew again.

The mammoth jet, with its 36 wheels, landed at Shannon at 1.40pm, half an hour ahead of schedule. Over 100 plane spotters from as far away as Cork, Carlow and Dublin, as well as scores of workers from surrounding companies, lined the airport’s perimeter so catch a glimpse of the plane.