Thousands of Australian citizens trooped to Perth Airport to watch the world’s biggest plane touch down in Australia for the first time.
The plane, 84m-long plane, which weighs 175 tonnes without cargo or fuel, was transporting a 117-tonne generator. It landed in Australia on 15 May, 2016, forcing the Airport to temporarily close down to allow over 15,000 spectators who had gathered to witness the rare event to view the aircraft.
The plane, Antonov An-225 Mriya, has a total of six engines and is almost 4 times the size of the normal plane.
The plane picked up its cargo in Prague and stopped at locations in the Middle East and Asia on its way to Australia.
The Antonov An-225 Mriya is a strategic airlift cargo aircraft that was designed by the Soviet Union’s Antonov Design Bureau in the 1980s. The An-225’s name, Mriya means “Dream” (Inspiration) in Ukrainian. It is powered by six turbofan engines and is the longest and heaviest airplane ever built, with a maximum takeoff weight of 640 tonnes (1,410,000 lb). It also has the largest wingspan of any aircraft in operational service.
The aircraft has 32 wheels, a wing span of 84.4 metres and a maximum take-off weight of 640 tonnes.
It takes up to 12 hours to unload the aircraft.
