On February 27, Ukraine's Antonov Airlines posted on social media claiming that the world's only An-225 heavy transport aircraft had been affected in the Russian-Ukrainian firefight. Subsequently, it was confirmed that the registration numbers of the civil aircraft of the An-225 and an An-124 had been cancelled. The Ukrainian side claimed that the An-225 was destroyed by the Russian attack, which the Russian side denied, but did not deny that the An-225 had been destroyed. Judging by the images from the scene, the damage to the An-225 is almost certain, and the world's largest aircraft may be out of the historical stage. Ukraine's foreign minister also issued a statement saying that the An-225 has been blown up, but it is uncertain whether it is a public opinion war.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the equipment originally deployed in the countries of the various countries was naturally inherited by the independent countries, so Ukraine obtained a batch of An-124s and the only An-225, becoming one of the countries with the strongest heavy-duty air transport capabilities in the world. For Ukraine, these Soviet-era manufacturing behemoths are both a happy and headache of "double-sided assets": happy that the same level of transport aircraft as the An-124 is only the American C-5, the An-225 is unique in the world, these heavy transport aircraft can produce immeasurable benefits if properly used; the headache is that as a country with a limited land area, Ukraine's domestic air transport does not need such a huge transport aircraft, and maintaining these large aircraft is quite expensive. This is a burden on Ukraine, which has long been poorly economically developed.
Naturally, there was no place for these heavy transport aircraft in the Ukrainian Air Force, so after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the property rights of the An-124 and An-225 in Ukraine were transferred to its producer Antonov Design Bureau (later reorganized into the Antonov Aviation Science and Technology Consortium, renamed the Antonov State Company after 2015), in order to ensure that these aircraft can be fully utilized and economically benefited, the Antonov Design Bureau moved them to The Antonov Airlines to undertake international cargo aviation business, so that these behemoths were realized "Military to civilian".
It should be noted that there are widespread errors in the information recorded by Antonov Airlines on the domestic network. Usually domestic sources claim that Antonov Airlines was founded in Novosibirsk, Soviet Union on May 31, 1946, but in fact Antonov Airlines was not established until 1989. The reason for this error is that domestic data providers often confuse the Antonov Design Bureau and Antonov Airlines, the former is an aircraft design and manufacturing agency, mainly designing and producing various types of military and civilian transport aircraft design, aircraft maintenance and testing, aerospace-related research and engineering, the latter is the former assets of the air cargo as the main business of the enterprise, is the former subsidiary. Prior to June 2006, Antonov Airlines partnered with British Phoele Charter Airlines, which operated the worldwide leasing of An-124 transport aircraft. Since then, Antonov Airlines and Volga-Dnipro Airlines have formed a joint venture and shared 17 An-124-100 and 1 An-225 originally belonging to the two companies.
Due to the product particularity of the parent company, Antonov Airlines is one of the few airlines that mainly operates mainly military transport aircraft. Prior to the start of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, an Antonov Airlines operated one An-22 large transport aircraft (registration number UR-09307), one An-26-100 light transport aircraft (registration number UR-13395), one An-28 (light transport aircraft (registration number UR-NTE), one An-74T-100 medium and light transport aircraft (registration number UR-74010), three An-124-100 heavy transport aircraft (registration number UR-82029/ UR-82072/UR-82073), four An-124-100M heavy transport aircraft (registration number UR-82007/UR-82008/UR-82009/UR-82027), one An-178 medium transport aircraft (registration number UR-EXP), and one An-225 heavy transport aircraft (registration number UR-82060).
Although The size of Antonov Airlines is not ranked among the enterprises operating international shipping business, its main operating aircraft can carry bulk materials that are difficult for ordinary civilian cargo aircraft to transport, and its long-distance airlift capacity of 100-ton large single cargo has no competitors among current aviation companies. In September 1993, an Antonov Aviation An-124 transported a generator from Düsseldorf, Germany, to New Delhi, India, weighing 124 tons and setting a world record for the weight of a single cargo in the history of air transport. Sixteen years later, that record was broken by the An-225, also owned by Antonov Aviation, which shipped an 187.6-ton generator from Frankfurt, Germany, to Yerevan, Armenia, in August 2009.
In addition, the An-225 is also an important means of delivering huge cargo. In November 2013, An-225 transported four "Xianglong" trams exported from China CNR Tangche Company to Samsun City, Turkey, from Shijiazhuang to Turkey, realizing the first airlift of the entire train by transport air. In the transportation of scattered goods, the An-225 also played an important role. Taking the air movement during the COVID-19 epidemic as an example, during the first quarter of 2020 alone, the An-225 transported a total of 1,300 tons of anti-epidemic medical supplies. It is not difficult to see that the An-225 is not only the record holder of the world's largest aircraft, but also has an unshakable position in the international air transport system, and the damage caused by the aircraft is incalculable even from a purely economic point of view.
The competition between the Russian and Ukrainian armies for The Antonov airport led to the an-225 being affected by the pond fish, which is related to the special status of the Antonov airport. Antonov Airport is located in the northwestern suburbs of Kiev in the town of Khostome, also known as Khostome Airport, the airport was built in 1959, in the Soviet era was the Antonov Design Bureau for test flights and testing base, after the collapse of the Soviet Union in addition to continuing to be used as a test base, but also as a product export base of Antonov State Company, the main base of Antonov Airlines, and opened to other aviation companies for use as a cargo airport. Antonov Airport has a complete large aircraft maintenance support facility, especially its two oversized hangars (80×40×28 meters and 96×104 ×40 meters) can accommodate any current type of aircraft, and naturally the An-225 is basically docked in it when it is not carrying out shipping tasks. In addition, Antonov Airport is also an important land-air intermodal transport hub for the rapid transfer of goods between cargo stations and cargo planes in the airport.
Therefore, The Antonov airfield is an absolute strategic facility both geographically and in terms of use value - for the Russian army, the control of the Antonov airport can airborne personnel and materials in the airport, establishing the basis for the attack on Kiev, and if tactical aircraft and helicopter gunships are deployed here, they can also provide fire support directly during the attack on Kiev. If The Antonov airport is used as a base, various aviation forces, including bombers and heavy multi-role fighters, can be deployed, and tactical aircraft taken off from the airport can cover central and southern Ukraine, and if bombers are used, they can cover all of Ukraine. If the airport is used as a logistics hub, under the premise of ensuring the safety of air routes, the personnel and materials unloaded from the airport can be transported through the railway network to any place in Ukraine that needs support. There is no doubt that after the Antonov airfield was controlled by the Russian army, it was a big problem for the Ukrainian side, and in the case of inability to regain control of the airport, the Ukrainian army would naturally choose to paralyze the operation of the airport with firepower. Shells do not have long eyes, and even a behemoth like the An-225 is absolutely powerless to withstand a blow from a large-caliber artillery, although the current situation is unacceptable, but it can only be said to be inevitable.
As for whether the An-225 has the possibility of repair, this question is definitely not optimistic. After the 2014 ukrainian domestic crisis, due to the continuous deterioration of the domestic economic situation and the suspension of industrial and technical cooperation due to the russian-Ukrainian hostilities, the Antonov State Company, which relies heavily on the technology and parts provided by Russia, completely lost the production capacity of large aircraft, greatly reduced the maintenance capacity of existing heavy transport aircraft, and even had to send the aircraft to the aircraft repair plants in Central Asian countries for maintenance. Years of continued attrition have left Antonov State-owned Company badly injured, and by 2017 it had accumulated $44 million in debt and was on the verge of bankruptcy, so it was impossible to expect Antonov State to repair the An-225, which was extremely demanding both financially and technically demanding.
Counting on the Russian side to repair the An-225 is also hopeless, not to mention how Russia will transport the semi-wreckage of this flight-incapacitated aircraft to the country for repair, only from the current Russian attempt to restore the production of the An-124 under the premise of mastering the An-124 production line is still a long-term failure, repairing the An-225, which is larger than the An-124, is extremely difficult, even if the Russian side intends to repair the aircraft with the current economic conditions of Russia, the financial and material resources can be delayed for several years. At that time, it is doubtful whether An-225 still has restorative value due to natural aging. Moreover, the D-18T turbofan engine used by the An-225 is produced by the Ukrainian company Madasic, which currently faces the same dilemma as the Antonov state company, which makes it likely that even if the An-225's body can be repaired, it is likely that it will no longer be able to soar in the blue sky.
In any case, the damage to the An-225 is a very sad thing for aviation industry technicians, aviation business operators and aviation enthusiasts around the world. Although this giant aircraft did not play any role in the expected mission to carry spacecraft, it became the backbone of heavy-duty air transport after service, achieving an indelible legend. However, all this came to an abrupt end with just a wave of artillery fire, and the giant aircraft that was the crystallization of human aviation industry technology has since withdrawn from the stage of history, and it is almost impossible to see a larger aircraft than the An-225 fly into the blue sky for a long time to come. Destroying the An-225 only requires a few shells falling from the sky, and the creation of the An-225 requires a Soviet Union with a powerful aviation industry, but at present, the two most powerful member states of the Soviet Union are fighting each other, which is the tragedy of the An-225, but also the tragedy of human civilization.