There are far greater tragedies arising from Russia's invasion of Ukraine than the demise of the world's largest aircraft. But as the wreckage of the Antonov An-225 Mriya now sits among the ruins of Gostomel Airport close to Kyiv, it is representative of a cycle of autocratic imperial ambitions repeating itself again and again, not the least at the time of the Mriya's conception under Soviet rule.Invoking a dystopian world few of us would like to experience beyond the graphics of video games such as The Last of Us, the remains of what was once the marvel of aviation sit in the rubble of a destroyed airport hangar and is, from the looks, of it, beyond salvation.

Last mission from Asia to Scandinavia

Gostomel (or Hostomel, depending on the transliteration) Airport (GML) was attacked by Russian airstrikes on February 24, the same day the invasion began. It is, or was, an international cargo airport and testing facility located near Gostomel, which is a northwestern suburb of Kyiv.

Under "normal" circumstances, the airport also hosts the Strategic AirLift International Solution (SALIS), which provides outsized air cargo transport for its participating nations and is managed by the NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA). The Mriya had been there since February 5, when it arrived from Billund in Denmark, where it had transported almost 90 tons of COVID-19 test kits from Tianjin in China. This was to be its final flight.

Broken "dream"

Mriya means dream in Ukrainian. Ironically, it is also very similar to "mir" - the Russian word for peace. The Antonov An-225 performed its maiden flight on December 21, 1988. Two aircraft were ordered, but only one unit was ever built to completion. There have been discussions about building a second Mriya in honor of Ukrainian pilots who have died in the war.

However, the apparent $800 million price tag seems to have put officials off the project. Indeed, while the Mriya is a highly valued symbol of Ukrainian engineering, there are many other things, such as schools and hospitals, that will need the funds for rebuilding. The dreams of generations on both sides of the border, however, are not so easily mended.

The Antonov An-225 was the heaviest aircraft ever built, weighing 285,000 kg. It also held the world record for an airlifted single-item payload of 189,980 kilograms (power plant generator from Frankfurt Airport) and an airlifted total payload of 253,820 kilograms. While still flying, the Mriya had the widest wingspan of an aircraft in operation - 88.4 meters or 290 feet.

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