An-225 Mriya
Role	Strategic airlifter
National origin	Soviet Union / Ukraine
Manufacturer	Antonov
First flight	21 December 1988
Status	In service
Primary user	Antonov Airlines
Produced	1988
Number built	1
Developed from	Antonov An-124

The Antonov An-225 Mriya (Ukrainian: Антонов Ан-225 Мрія, Russian: Антонов Ан-225 Мрия, Dream, NATO reporting name: "Cossack") is a strategic airlift cargo aircraftthat was designed by the Soviet Union's Antonov Design Bureau in the 1980s. The An-225's name, Mriya (Мрiя) means "Dream" (Inspiration) in Ukrainian. It is powered by six turbofan engines and is the longest and heaviest airplane ever built, with a maximum takeoff weight of 640 tonnes. It also has the largest wingspan of any aircraft in operational service. The single example built has the Ukrainian civil registration UR-82060. A second airframe was partially built; its completion was halted because of lack of funding and interest.


The Antonov An-225, initially developed for the task of transporting the Buran spaceplane, was an enlargement of the successful Antonov An-124. The first and only An-225 was completed in 1988. After successfully fulfilling its Soviet military missions, it was mothballed for eight years. It was then refurbished and re-introduced, and is in commercial operation with Antonov Airlines carrying oversized payloads.^[1] The airlifter holds the absolute world records for an airlifted single item payload of 189,980 kilograms (418,834 pounds),^[2][3] and an airlifted total payload of 253,820 kilograms (559,577 pounds).^[4][5] It has also transported a payload of 247,000 kilograms (545,000 pounds) on a commercial flight.^[6]