Heaviest aircraft at take-off

What to remember

Maximum take-off mass: 629.89 t. The Antonov An-225 Mriya is the heaviest aircraft in the world, and also the most capable transport, with a capacity of 246.05 tons.

Developed in the 1980s by the Antonov Design Bureau in the Soviet Union, it was an enlarged derivative of the Antonov An-124, built to carry the Buran spacecraft. It made its maiden flight on 21 December 1988. Only one aircraft was ever completed, although a second airframe with a slightly different configuration was partly built. Its size speaks for itself: 84.00 meters long with a span of 88.40 meters.

After a brief period in the Soviet space program, it was mothballed in the early 1990s. Around the turn of the century it was refurbished and put back into commercial service, carrying oversized payloads for Antonov Airlines. Its name, Mriya, means dream in Ukrainian; NATO called it Cossack.