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November
28th 2005 witnessed the arrival of the world's largest aircraft - the
AN-225 - at Nottingham East Midlands Airport. With a wingspan on 88.4m
and a length of 84.0m it is considerably bigger than the A380 and nearly
1/3rd bigger than the B747-400. The behemoth touched down on runway
27 at 18:18 after a flight from Dhaka with a fuel-stop in Baku carrying
over 100 tonnes of clothing for national retailer PRIMARK to replenish
their stocks at Magna Park which were recently lost in a huge fire.
As she turned off the runway the huge wingspan was clearly evident and she gingerly made her way to cargo west via the Juliet bellmouth then turned to park at 45 degrees across stand 120. A Polet Cargo AN-124 was parked up just two stands away and the difference in size was clearly evident as the AN-225 closed down her engines. The following pictures show the aircraft shortly after arriving on stand. The nose had to be opened to access the huge 2.5 tonne tow-bar as the aircraft was to be repositioned for the night to facilitate the DHL operation. Unloading would take place the next day. |
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Thanks to
Shaun White for the following photo taken at sunrise the morning
after arrival.
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On Friday 2nd December the media were invited to come and see the aircraft. Central News and East Midlands Today both ran stories on the visit in their lunchtime and evening news programmes. The outbound flight was to be on behalf of charity "Operation Christmas Child" and the aircraft would be loaded that afternoon and evening with 70,000 shoe-boxes loaded with Christmas goodies packed by UK school children. They would be flying off to Kiev in the Ukraine the following morning. The Friday morning started dull but brightened up for a short while - just enough to enable a few shots of the aircraft in company with one of her sister ships - an Antonov Airlines AN-124 operating a charter to Toulouse for Rolls Royce with engines for the Airbus programme. The following photo's give a good comparison of the size of the two aircraft types and the structural similarities between them. |
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My thanks to Ian Loasby for the following interior photographs . . .
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The massive interior of the AN-225
© Ian Loasby Photography |
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Driving Seat !!
© Ian Loasby Photography
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Six throttle levers are unique on a civilian aircraft
© Ian Loasby Photography |
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A six man crew !
© Ian Loasby Photography
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Crew wardrobe !
© Ian Loasby Photography
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Crew rest area
© Ian Loasby Photography |
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Another view of the pilots side of the cockpit
© Ian Loasby Photography
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Saturday 3rd December was departure day and in order to get to Kiev for 11:00am, a departure between 07:30 and 08:00 was required. By now, thousands of people knew about the aircraft being at NEMA having seen it on the telly the night before and although it was cold, dark and even drizzling a little, hundreds of people turned out to watch the departure. The Aeropark was opened specially and soon the car park was full to the brim. The verges of the road from Castle Donington to the Donington Park racetrack were full of spectators cars as people lined the perimeter fence at the end of the runway. Bang on cue, the AN-225 called for engine start just before 07:30 and was soon escorted off the cargo west apron by an airport lead-car, through the Juliet bellmouth (through which she'd entered days earlier) and out on to the runway to backtrack for a 27 westerly take-off. Slowly and steadily she made her way down the near 3km long runway giving those spectators in the Aeropark who had braved the elements a great side-on view. As she neared the Kegworth end of the runway she turned back on to the taxiway system and stopped at the A1 hold to stabilise the engines for about 5-10 minutes in the same way as all the AN-124's do. The following picture shows the AN-225 at the A1 hold. |
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Once the crew were happy everything was functioning at 100%, she called for clearance to enter the runway and was cleared to line-up. Turning gracefully on to the runway she pointed the nose westwards, stopped and held station for a while - perhaps to let the photographers get their pictures !! - then powered up the engines and commenced the take-off roll along 27 using about 3/4 of the runway before lifting the nosewheel and climbing slowly in to the brightening morning sky. |
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Enthusiasts and spectators at the Aeropark remarked on how quiet it was for such a large aircraft - much quieter than the Ryanair B737-200 that took-off shortly afterwards. A slow right turn on to the Trent SID and she was gone into the low cloud. Happy Christmas to the AN-225 and to all the Ukrainian children who will soon receive their presents from their friends in the UK. We all look forward to seeing you at NEMA again real soon. |