I meant the aircraft itself was used by Russia several times for giant cargo and by other countries and was a marvel of engineering, an icon in transportation in general.
Even the U.S dot mil used it. When the hajis begun to seriously harass supply lines in Iraq and basically cut off Baghdad from the rest of the world, Mriya was hired to deliver supplies - I think it was in 04.
You'd think the Russians would've secured it.
They would have to steal it and fly it out - impossible for many reasons
You don't just build another one again as the "other" one was just a parts plane.
I've got no idea about aviation engineering, but if the soviets were able to build it, why not modern Russia ? It only requires a lot of money and skilled engineers
It's a giant loss, pun intended and quite important in this conflict in my opinion. What really happened to this 2 billion $ plane?
For more than a month - from 24 February to 31 March / 1 April - the airfield was in Russian hands and under heavy artillery fire from the Ukrainians. During that time things just happened:
27.02.2022 - "That's all. It is reported that during the fighting around the Gostomel airfield, the one largest and most lifting aircraft An-225 "Mriya" was destroyed. At the same time, the Antonov employees themselves claim that the second side (hull) was destroyed."
"Video of the dying An-225 "Mriya" and equipment at the Gostomel airfield near Kyiv after the artillery shelling of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the first days of the fighting."
en.wikipedia.org
en.m.wikipedia.org
tass.com
