AN-225 ready for the market
OUT-OF-GAUGE joint venture Air Foyle/Heavy Lift is ready to unleash the giant AN-225 freighter into the commercial market. Capable of lifting 250 tonnes, the record-breaking freighter joins its AN-124 brother in the company’s fleet.
Meanwhile, confirmation has been received from the Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI) of the AN-225’s record-breaking test flight in September 2001. Carrying a load of 253.82 tonnes, the aircraft flew at an altitude of two km over a closed circuit of 100km at speed of 763.2km/h.
An application has been submitted to the Guinness Book of Records, but it is not the first time Antonov has broken a world record. Both Air Foyle and the Antonov design Bureau jointly hold the two world records, one in 1993 for the heaviest single load ever transported by air (135.2 tonnes), and the other in 1994 when Air Foyle/Antonov AN-124-100 freighter airlifted a total weight of 146 tonnes, comprising a 109-tonne locomotive plus 37 tonnes of metal bridging equipment
