The worlds largest plane is the Antonov An-225 Myria

The Russian word ' Мрия ' incidentally means 'inspired dream' it is classed as a Strategic Air-lifter and was constructed by the Antonov Design Bureau in the Ukraine in 1988 as a derivative from the Antanov An124.

There were only two An-225 planes ever built, with their colossal size though, it must be said that you only need two !

The An-225 took its maiden flight on the 21st December 1988, whilst two of these planes were actually commissioned there is only one in operation with the registration UR-82060.

The An-225 is not a military plane and is therefore available for flying anyone's oversized cargo to anywhere in the the world. With a capacity of 550,000 lb in its cargo area or 440,000 lb carried on the upper fuselage (on the outside) the An-225 is certainly an airplane that's up to the job of ultra heavy haulage.

The plane was originally intended for use within the Russian space program to haul the Buran space shuttle orbiter from destination to destination, but due to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990 much of the Russian Space program was cancelled along with any further development of the An-225.

The Specifications of the Antonov An-225 are quite impressive. It only has a crew of 6 to fly, run and operate, consisting of two pilots, two flight engineers, a navigator and a communications officer. The maximum payload is 551,200lb's or 275 (short) tons and the planes length is 275 ft with a wingspan of 290ft.

The plane stands nearly 60 feet high from its gear to the tip of its tail. The huge cargo door that opens on the front of the plane is 14 ft tall and 21 ft across, big enough to take an articulated truck or bigger. The cargo hold itself is 141 ft long.

The world record breaking maximum take-off weight of the An-225, ( this includes the weight of the plane itself ) is a massive 1 million, 322 thousand and 750lbs ! and needs 3,500 meters of runway to achieve take off on its 32 wheeled landing gear. This array of wheels and the actual close configuration that they are in are needed to support the entire weight of the plane and any heavy payload when its on the ground.

The An-225 is powered by 6 massive ZMKB Ivchenko Progress D-18 Turbofan Jet engines producing 303,600lbs or 151 tons of constant combined thrust, which will accelerate the plane to over hundred mph on the runway to get it airborne.

The plane can reach a maximum flight speed of 460 knots or 530mph with a cruising speed of 430 knots or 500mph. With a maximum cargo capacity filling the hold it has a range of 2,500 miles, this range is increased when the plane is not carrying any cargo to 9,570 miles. The cruise height or ceiling altitude at which the An-225 generally flies is 36,000 ft or nearly 7 miles high.

The An-225 is currently classed as the worlds largest and indeed heaviest aircraft with its gross maximum weight of 640 tons. In September 2001 the An-225 carried a world record cargo of 254 tons at an altitude of 6,500 feet whilst traveling at 474 mph

168 Feared Dead Commercial Airliner Crashes in Iran

Tehran: A Russian-built commercial airliner reported to be carrying 168 passengers and crew crashed early this morning in Iran about 90 miles northwest of the capital of Tehran. Early reports indicate Caspian Air Flight 7908 was en route to Yerevan, Armenia and was just 16 minutes into its flight from Tehran when the plane crash occurred at 11:33am this morning Tehran time.

Earlier reports suggested that 150 people had died, but later bulletins carried by both CNN and the New York Times have pegged the death toll at 168.

The aircraft involved in the plane crash was reported to be a Russian-built Tupolev airliner. According to CNN a prior air accident involving a Tupolev aircraft occurred three years ago when an Iranian flight crashed and caught fire while landing. Quoting statistics from the web site airdisaster.com, there were 147 people on board when that plane went down in 2006. Of those on board, 29 people died.

According to footage shot at the scene of today’s plane crash by state-run Press TV the crash site is described as a huge crater in the earth scattered with pieces of the fuselage. Iranian Press TV reported that the plane went down in broad daylight near the Iranian city of Qazvin, the largest city in Qazvin province and serves as the provincial capital with a population of 330,000.

A report issued by the Associated Press (AP) and carried in the New York Times this morning describes a spokesperson for the Iranian Civil Aviation Organization that there were 153 passengers on board the plane, which had a crew of 15. Iranian Press TV, according to CNN, quoted the director of Qazvin Emergency Services Hussein Behzadpour as speculating all on board were “most probably” dead.

The only recognizable piece of the plane was a large chunk of wing, but the remainder of the plane appeared to present as small pieces.

The AP report carried in the New York Times this morning identified Caspian Air as a joint Russia-Iranian venture. Caspian Air aircraft are said to have maintenance protocols that are much better than other Iranian air carriers, which according to the AP report have trouble securing spare parts for aging aircraft due to the sanctions imposed on the country by the US.

Girl Survives Indian Ocean Crash

Paris, FR: Earlier reports of a 5-year-old boy surviving the plane crash involving an Airbus A310-300 en route from Yemen to the African Island nation of Comoros, have been corrected. Officials now report that the survivor is a 14-year-old girl, Bahia Bariki. The Yemania Airlines plane carrying 153 people crashed into Deep Ocean off the east coast of Africa early in the morning on June 30. So far the planes in flight data recorder or "Black Box" have not been located. The plane's safety record is being questioned, after it was discovered that the same plane had been inspected by the French civil aviation authority two years ago, who found a number of faults on the plane. Furthermore, the very same A310 jet was banned from French airspace because of 'irregularities' and concerns over Yemania Airlines safety record.

Yemania Airlines is not on the list of banned airlines, kept by the European Union, however ABC news is reporting that the EU safety committee was due to hold hearings on the airline shortly.

ABC News is reporting that Farid Soilihi, spokesman for SOS Comoros Travel, an organization formed to call attention to the unsafe travel conditions to the African nation, told France 2 TV in Marseille that the planes are not safe. Last August the Comoro community in Marseille organized a demonstration to draw attention to the reportedly terrible condition of the planes and to alert authorities to the risk for disaster.

On June 1st an Air France plane went down off the coast of Brazil, killing everyone on board. There is, as yet no conclusive cause for that plane crash, although investigators are working on a theory that the plane broke up in mid-air. The location of debris fields, together with the location of bodies, appears to support that theory.

The Airbus aircrafts involved in both crashes are some of the most technologically advanced planes in the skies. Two Quantas flights narrowly avoided disaster in recent years after automatic sensors and computers fed erroneous data to the pilots. And Airbus uses new, state-of-the-art composite materials in certain areas of its planes. The failure of a composite part was said to have played a role in a previous crash of an Airbus plane.

source: lawyersandsettlements

Plane crash will receive $4.5 million

Daytona Beach, FL: The children of a man who died in a plane crash will receive $4.5 million after a say approved the settlement. The man, who was 29 years old when the plane crash occurred, was 1 of 4 people who died in the accident. Also killed were the man's mother, his sister and her husband, who was the plane's pilot.
According to a June 24, 2009 article in the Daytona Beach News-Journal Online, investigators found that the plane broke up in flight, before it crashed into an island in Mosquito Lagoon. Furthermore, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) found that "an in-flight loss of control and subsequent dive occurred for unknown reasons."

The lawsuit, filed against the plane's owner, Delta Connection Academy Inc., alleged the company failed to properly maintain or repair the aircraft. The lawsuit further alleged that the pilot's negligence contributed to the crash.

In a different investigation, NTSB investigators determined that the pilot of a plane carrying 9 skydivers suffered from a severe lack of oxygen prior to the plane's crash in Washington State.

Furthermore, the NTSB said the pilot failed to maintain adequate airspeed, did not make an adequate weather evaluation before take-off and likely did not know he was impaired due to oxygen loss. All 10 people aboard the plane died in the crash. Lawsuits have been filed alleging the plane was defective and should not have been flown in icy weather.

Meanwhile, the survivors of US Airways Flight 1549 are reportedly concerned that they may not be compensated for belongings lost when their plane crash-landed in the Hudson River on January 15, 2009. According to a June 16, 2009, article at charlotteobserver.com, passengers initially received $5,000 to cover immediate needs following the crash, but they now say AIG (now calling itself AIU) is not responding to passenger claims. AIG says it has offered passengers additional compensation to release their claim against US Airways.