What did I see ? East Midlands, Mon 26.10.09

[lazyitus]

I visited the Donington motor museum on Monday. (Great place, incidentally)

Noticed, as I drove round the back of the airport, loads of plane spotters beavering around with binocs etc.

A quick glance to the left saw a MASSIVE white thing with 6 engines and bowing wings.

Looked like some type of Russian cargo plane ??

Anybody know what is was ?

[bob1179]

Antonov AN-225 Myria

Designed to carry the Soviet Space Shuttle, now used to carry big loads.

Awesome plane!

[lazyitus]

Indeed - just seen some pics on google and see it is a 225.

Bloody MAHASSIVE !

http://chrishall.fotopic.net/c1773088.html

Would this be classed as a good 'spot' by plane enthusiasts ?

Edited by lazyitus on Tuesday 27th October 10:04

[B Oeuf]

six engines you say?

[lazyitus]

That's the beast.

[B Oeuf]

didn't realise this thing was still flying?

[Eric Mc]

And it's the only one.

[Jonny671]

Thats amazing.

I'd class that as a good spot, and i'm not even an enthusiast!

Does it need a runway a couple of miles long to take off?

[RizzoTheRat]

There's a pub in line with Farnborough's main runway that's got a great photo of the 225 on approach, there's the pub sign, and most of the rest of the picture is taken up by undercarriage

[Eric Mc]

No more than a normal airliner. If a 747 can use it, so can the An225.

[B Oeuf]

Eric Mc said:

And it's the only one.

love to see that, how does it compare to the A380 size wise?

found it

Edited by B Oeuf on Tuesday 27th October 10:32

[S3_Graham]

B Oeuf said:

Eric Mc said:

And it's the only one.

love to see that, how does it compare to the A380 size wise?

found it

Edited by B Oeuf on Tuesday 27th October 10:32

basically then its bigger... by a fair amount, but still smaller than an rather old plane!!

the smaller version that comes in to Farnborough for the airshow is big enough FFS!

[speedchick]

Scheduled to take off at 11 today if anyone that wants to see it can make it there in time.

[mcdjl]

speedchick said:

Scheduled to take off at 11 today if anyone that wants to see it can make it there in time.

Ah well...missed that then. Any way of finding out when interesting stuff is visiting EMA?

[thatone1967]

[B1G GK]

thatone1967 said:

Thats /\ coming into Manchester.

[speedchick]

When is it due in Manchester?

[anonymous-user]

speedchick said:

When is it due in Manchester?

I think he meant the photo above was one landing at Manchester Airport.

[ThatPhilBrettGuy]

I love the Russians and their engineering. Plane underpowered? Shall we redesign the engines? No, just bolt more on. Bit heavy now? Shall we redesign the undercarriage? No, just bolt more on.

[TheEnd]

Any clues on what it was picking up or dropping off (assuming it was working)