February 13, 2019 (9news.com.au) On the outskirts of Kiev, somewhere between the city's Nyvky and
Sviatoshyn metro stations, sits a drab industrial building that you could drive
past a thousand times without guessing it contains an extraordinary secret. Inside
can be found the unfinished chapter of one of the greatest feats of Soviet
aviation ever conceived. The only clue is the building's size. It's gargantuan.
It needs to be. Because it contains something equally vast - the largest
airplane that was never completed.
The world's largest incomplete aircraft, the Antonov An-225 lies in
pieces in a giant warehouse on the outskirts of Kiev. (Pavlo Fedykovych / CNN)
The
aircraft is an Antonov An-225, conceived by Soviet engineers in the dying days
of the Cold War as a gigantic, gravity-defying workhorse that would help
communism's ongoing race into space and assert the East's dominance of the
skies. Only one An-225 was ever built by the Kiev-based Antonov company, which
came up with the design. Romantically named Mriya, (Ukranian for dream), it
first took flight in 1988 and has been in service ever since, drawing crowds of
admirers wherever it spreads its huge wings. Construction was begun on a second
plane, a sister for this aerial leviathan. But while Mriya is breaking world
records in the skies, her twin still lies in pieces, only able to dream about
leaving the ground. The fate of Mriya's hidden sister is a fascinating story
about big ambitions and even bigger frustrations caught up in the turbulent
history of modern Ukraine after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
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