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It's a plane that would have never have been  built today. It burns up to 20 tons of fuel an hour,  

and it's too large for a third of the world's  airports. But this cold war relic was built to  

do what no other aircraft in the world could:  lift enormous components for the Soviet  

space program, and even launch spacecraft  into orbit by serving as an air-launch platform.  

The Soviets had big plans for this plane, but  by the time they unveiled it to the world at  

the 1989 Paris Air Show, it was a plane  built for a future that would never be.

In 1982 the Soviet Union begins airlifting  components of a new space launch system, strapping  

enormous parts to the back of aircraft, and flying  them thousands of kilometers across the country.  

They're racing to build the counterpart to  the American Space Shuttle, a rival spacecraft  

and launch system called Energia-Buran. Like  earlier Soviet spacecraft, it's being built here  

at aerospace manufacturing facilities in the west,  and it'll be launched here thousands of kilometers  

away. But unlike earlier spacecraft, Energia-Buran  components are too large to be transported using  

railways, so they'll have to be airlifted. In a rush  the Soviets convert 1950s-era bombers for the job, 

but the planes aren't up to the task. They can  only lift smaller components, and even those  

have to be stripped down to make them as light  as possible. To carry fully assembled components,  

some of which are nearly 60 meters long, the  Soviets are going to need a much bigger plane.

The Americans solved their need to transport space  shuttles by converting Boeing 747s into shuttle  

carriers. The jumbo jet was an ideal plane for the  job, large and powerful it was modified by reducing  

weight, strengthening its fuselage, and adding  additional stabilizers. And unlike the Soviets,  

the Americans would also use rail lines, and the  largest components would be transported over  

water using barges. Only the shuttle orbiter would  need to be airlifted. The soviets on the other hand,  

would need to airlift their entire launch system,  including giant rocket boosters and core stages. 

And with Soviet leadership pressing to start  launches in 1988, engineers had little time to  

come up with a solution. So, naturally they looked  to the largest plane the Soviet Union had to offer.  

Under development in the early 1980s the Antonov  124 would enter service as the largest and most  

capable transport in the world, and  just in time for Energia-Buran launches. 

But even the enormous 124 wasn't going to cut it,  engineers would have to make the plane even larger.  

And to do, it they'd lengthen the fuselage and  add route extensions to increase the wingspan.  

For more power they'd give the plane two more  engines. With a strength in fuselage, the new plane  

would easily carry a Buran orbiter, but larger  components would obstruct the tail. So engineers  

redesigned the vertical stabilizer. To deal  with the new plane's immense weight and to  

prevent it from damaging runways, they'd give it  a new landing gear: distributing weight across  

32 wheels. Larger and more capable, this new titan  of the skies would be designated as the An-225

the An-225 is unlike any aircraft in the world. Six  turbofans put out a staggering 309,000 pounds of  

thrust, giving it the ability to lift nearly double  the payload of its western contemporaries. It's a  

plane so large, the Wright Brothers could have made  their first flight entirely inside its cargo hold.  

The 225's primary mission would be to carry  Energia-Buran components, but designers also  

envisioned using the plane to do what had never  been done before. Launch spacecraft into orbit  

directly from mid-air. That's because the 225 would  be powerful enough to fly a fully-fueled space  

plane and its payload up to the lower stratosphere,  where it would then launch at an altitude  

of 8 kilometers. Allowing it to reach orbit at  one-tenth the cost of launching from the ground.  

The reusable launch system would  complement the Energia-Buran

and its development was well underway by 1988. The  Soviets planned to build several Antonov An-225s  

to serve as the backbone of their  space program for decades to come.

In November of 1988, the Soviets stunned the world  with the first unmanned launch of a Buran. Up until  

that point, few in the west would have had any idea  that the Soviets had developed their own version  

of the Space Shuttle. And the following year  the soviets gave western audiences a first-hand  

look as the enormous 225 carried a Buran to the  Paris Air Show. The monstrous plane drew crowds,  

but experts were puzzled. To get to the air show,  the Soviets had flown their brand new spacecraft  

right through a rainstorm. A move NASA would have  considered reckless with their Space Shuttle.  

But by this point, damaging the Buran was the least  of the Soviet Union's concerns. Because by 1989, the  

country was going bankrupt and could no longer  afford the Energia-Buran. And it meant that the  

spacecraft would never launch again. Without the  need to airlift orbiters core stages and boosters,  

the 225 was paraded around at Western air shows  while the Soviets struggled to find an alternative  

use for the giant plane. And it seemed like nothing  was off the table. One proposal considered using  

the 225 to deploy a Ekranoplans for maritime  rescue missions. The British looked at using the  

plane as a launch platform for their own proposed  space plane. At one point there was even a  

proposal for a massive triple deck airliner. But  none of these plans ever materialized. In 1991, the  

Soviet Union collapsed and before long, the 225 was  sent into storage outside of Kiev, Ukraine where it  

was scavenged for parts. The world's largest  plane now seemed destined for the scrapyard. 

With the fall of the Soviet Union, Ukraine's  Antonov Design Bureau struggled to find customers  

for their aircraft. But they did find a new source  of revenue chartering out their existing fleet to  

fly cargo. With An-124s having more lifting  power than any aircraft in the world, Antonov  

found a brisk business transporting everything  from giant electrical generators to locomotives.  

But every so often, they'd get a request  to fly cargo that even their 124's

couldn't manage. By the late 90s, the case for  resurrecting the giant 225 was building.  

But it wasn't a straightforward decision. Unlike  the smaller 124 which was purpose built for cargo,  

the 225 was a relic of the Soviet space program, with a fuselage heavily reinforced to handle  

external payloads. And unlike the 124, the plane had  no rear cargo door, which would slow the process of  

loading cargo. But Antonov bet that the plane could  fill a niche. And after years in storage, 20 million  

dollars were invested into new engines, modernized  avionics, and a new strengthened cargo hold.  

On its first chartered flight in January of  2002, the 225 carried a payload of 187 tons.  

A feat that would have otherwise required two  Boeing 747 freighters. The world's largest plane  

had been given a new lease on life carrying cargo  that would have otherwise been impossible to fly.  

And over the course of the next two decades, the  225 set new world records for the immense  

payloads it transported. But the plane's outsized  capabilities come with outsized costs. At upwards  

of 30 thousand dollars an hour to operate, the 225  only flies when no other aircraft can do the job.

And with only one of the type ever produced, the  giant plane remains in a class of its own. Drawing  

crowds wherever it flies. A second half finished  225 has sat in storage for more than 30 years.  

And despite regular headlines about how it one  day might be finished, it's not certain if there  

will ever be enough demand for a second  spacecraft-transporter turned cargo plane.  

The An225 was built in an era when technological  advantages, whether in space or in the air, were  

to be achieved no matter the cost. And in the  1970s as the Soviets were racing to develop the  

Buran to catch up to the American Space Shuttle  the, Americans were developing another radical  

technology to gain a tactical advantage in the  air. Not by flying higher or faster than the enemy.  

But by being virtually invisible to radar. You  can learn more about the invention of stealth  

technology and the incredible F-117 Nighthawk  in my latest video now on Nebula. Nebula is a  

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budget award-winning documentaries. I just finished  watching Cold War, Hot Jets. A fascinating look at  

how British aviation gave rise to iconic aircraft  like the Avro Vulcan and the groundbreaking TSR-2.  

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