Flight of fancy? Ukraine wants to rebuild the world’s largest airplane

The Russian invasion of Ukraine continues to rage on, but that doesn’t mean Ukrainians have stopped having dreams and inspiration.

The An-225 Mriya was designed and created in the 1980s by the Soviet (later Ukrainian) state aircraft manufacturing company Antonov. ‘Mriya’ means ‘Dream’ or ‘Inspiration’.

As an enlarged strategic airlift cargo plane, CNN highlights that the Mriya was built to carry space shuttles for the Soviet space program.

The Mriya was later used for transporting objects most airplanes can’t such as wind turbines and locomotives.

Only one was built and for a reason: Capable of taking off while carrying 80 tons, the Mriya has been called by CNN the largest commercial aircraft ever made.

To put that in perspective, it doubles the capacity of a Boeing 747.

A symbol of Ukrainian national pride and an icon of Soviet engineering accomplishment, it became a casualty during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Between February 24 and 25, 2022, the Mriya was destroyed during the Russian takeover of Antonov Airport in Hostomel, nearby Kyiv.

Ukraine eventually regained the airport during the pushback of Russian troops. Now, in a controversial decision, there have been talks to rebuild the Mriya.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced back in May 2022 that the country would eventually reconstruct the An-225.

British billionaire and aviation enthusiast Richard Branson visited the wreckage during the summer of that year, excited about the opportunity to help with the project.

The New York Times reported on March 2023 that Antonov workers have been dismantling the An-225 Mriya to salvage parts and eventually reconstruct the aircraft.

However, critics argue that such effort isn’t a priority as the war is going on, particularly given so many cities and people have been affected during the Russian invasion.

Aviation analyst Valery Romanenko was quoted by The New York Times arguing that Antonov should be doing “something urgent for the armed forces” such as fabricating drones.

Bloomberg highlights that Antonov has stated that details on the rebuilding of the aircraft will only be possible after the war is over, whenever that happens.

Early estimates to make sure the Mriya flies again are between 500 million and 3 billion US dollars, Bloomberg reports. Money that could be used to rebuild schools, houses, and hospitals.

“Russia may have destroyed our ‘Mriya’. But they will never be able to destroy our dream of a strong, free and democratic European state. We shall prevail!”, Twitter Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.