The World’s Largest Airplane Flies Again

Any idea where he is? Have some good pix of us in the Hughes chalet and in front of the F-117, on it's first time outside the USA. Last I heard of him he was PCS to Hickam?

 

Bob, have you read "The Forgotten Soldier", by Guy Sajer? Compulsory reading of the eastern front - factual, first-hand, and unemotional.

 

Note in this pic that the front gear can be retracted while on the ground to facilitate loading if needed. It lowers the loading deck to ground level. (not shown in this pic).

Also, the 'bumps' on the top are covers for the mounting points for the Russian Space Shuttle, which was the reason for the development of the plane.
The US just used an old American Airlines 747.

 

Buran originally flew on a heavily modified Bison bomber, without Buran's vertical stabilizer.

 

I served in Europe so saw/intercepted Tu-95s twice. Unbelievably impressive a/c....

 

A Bear.

Did you ever see an M-4 Bison?

 

The USSR gave up on the M-4/3M Bison fairly early. It had nowhere near the legs of the Bear so was not seen nearly as much by NATO/NORAD crews.

 

Thanks for the suggestion, I will follow up on it. Not much chance to read anymore since I'm still trying to get some commissions done. One is quite large and complex with details and it isn't an airplane. My old eyes are starting to complain so it's going slow.

 

Just landed in Anchorage. Video in the link...

https://www.ktuu.com/content/news/Worlds-largest-cargo-plane-landing-in-Anchorage-570097121.html

 

Last night

 

i watched this thing land at KRDU maybe 4 years ago...on final, it looked like it was doing about 38 mph.

 

A B-36 pilot once described flying one as sitting in a bay window flying an apartment building. Even more true in this case

 

Those fittings probably went deep into the fuselage structure and it was easier to fair them in with no aero problems.

 

I just did a search, the 2 large fairings on the top are not used when transporting the Buran shuttle, it uses other attachment points. At least on the couple of pics I've found showing the Buran mounted on the 225.
The small fairings cover attachment points for the Buran shuttle.

But the An-225 was also developed to transport the huge Energia rocket (which is still operational, it looks like) so possibly that is why those 2 large faired attachment points are still there.
I cannot find a pic of the huge Energia mounted on the 225.

The Energia rocket was the main thruster (with 4 liquid rocket boosters) for the Buran shuttle when it flew. The soviets did not use the Burnan's engines for launch like the US did.
The Energia rocket is larger than the fuel tank used for our shuttle launch.
They did not use any SRB's with their "O-Rings" like the US did.

Anyway...

 

Probably retired by now. I thought he came back to Alaska, but can't find him.

 

Buran had a lot of technical problems, so they quit before they killed anybody. We, unfortunately, did.