The AN-225 Mriya aircraft transported a record-breaking cargo of medical supplies from China to the capital of Poland – Warsaw as part of the fight against the world pandemic of COVID-19.
On April 13 Mriya departed from Tianjin China Airport, where it was loaded with about 100 tonnes of medicines, tests for laboratory analysis, medical masks and other protective equipment, with a total load of about 1000 m3. In the history of aviation, this cargo volume has never been transported inside the cargo hold of the aircraft. After loading, the world’s largest transport aircraft made a flight to Warsaw with a landing on the route at the Almaty Airport, Kazakhstan for refuelling and crew rest.
This flight, chartered by Chapman Freeborn Airchartering Ltd (United Kingdom), was the first for the AN-225 after maintenance and modernization performed by ANTONOV Company specialists.
AN-225 Mriya has received a new engines remote control system of the Ukrainian production, new liquid-crystal devices for control of engines’ work, also produced in Ukraine, new modern LED lighting equipment with better characteristics, more energy-saving and more reliable.
Thus, the AN-225 Mriya has joined Antonov Airlines fleet of AN-124-100 aircraft performing charter humanitarian aid and relief operations delivering medical cargo and supplies required to struggle with worldwide COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. As of now since the end of March, Antonov Airlines has already carried more than 1400 tons of cargo from China to different countries in Europe, Americas and the Middle East.
The Ukrainian Mriya (the Ukrainian word for Dream) aircraft established more than 250 aviation records, in particular the hauling of single-piece cargo weighing 187.6 tons, as well as the absolute record for the payload of 253.8 tons.
Antonov Airlines is a division of Antonov Company, headquartered in Kyiv, Ukraine, and a Ukrainian state-owned enterprise, which designs, develops, produces and maintains the AN aircraft.