China is planning to build two giant Antonov An-225 aircraft in Chengdu and Shaanxi. Measuring 84 meters in length with an 88.4m wingspan, this massive plane can carry 640 tons, and holds the world record for being the longest and heaviest aircraft built since it came into service in 1988.
The decision to assemble two of these six-engine monsters is part of an agreement hammered out last year by the Ukraine’s Antonov Company and the state-owned Aerospace Industry Corp of China or AICC.
China and the Ukraine have had a close relationship when it comes to key technology. In the late 1990s, the People’s Liberation Army bought the scrapped hull of the Soviet-made heavy cruiser, the Varyag, before renaming it the Liaoning and turning it into the Chinese Navy’s first aircraft carrier.
Now, according to media outlets CCTV and Sino Military, China will assemble two An-225 aircraft under the license agreement signed with Kiev last year.
Back in 2016, Antonov announced they would complete the second airframe for AICC as a prelude to major production of the aircraft in China. It now plans to assemble a second airframe, according to reports.
They also sited AICC as saying that they were considering mass production of the cargo plane in Chengdu and Shaanxi after assembling the two An-225s there.
Industry insiders believe that Beijing, known for copying and then emulating foreign technology, aims to use the heavy transport aircraft as military workhorses, ferrying troops and equipment.
Still, the fact this monster is a relic from the Soviet space program makes analysts wonder if Beijing wants it to airlift rocket boosters and its Shenzhou orbiters.
The An-225 was initially developed to transport the prototype Buran, or Snowstorm, space shuttle, which was part of the Soviet Union’s ill-fated reusable spacecraft program.
It was abandoned after the collapse of the USSR.
Have you asked the Uighurs if it’s good to be a mohammendan under the CCP?
Duckling, I thought you prefered dogs ?
old, old school
(Rule the world)
Aziz, Aziz…
Why do you suppose we wanted to rule the world?
Look, if ruling the world is the nature of the world of the Chinese, then neither your nation nor any other nation on earth would have had the leisure which are required as an incubation period needed for yiur country and others to become a nation. So, sorry Aziz, I think you got us totally wrong there….
Listen, all we wanted is to live our own lives as we had in the past without the fear of being “VIOLATED” (or gang banged by colonialial powers as in the 18 and 1900’s); fear our cities randomly rained upon by bombs dropped from Kawasaki Zeros day in and day out; or, be Nagasakied and Hiroshimaed or be humiliated by Washington and Moscow as per our experience of the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, and the 90’s…
I hope that’s not too much of us to ask for…
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( Sexy Ukrainians)
C’mon, Ukrainian Babes, like the British Mini skirt and the French lemoni Citroen from way back its beginings can hardly be described as Brigitte Bardot ;)….
If we wanted to talk sex ;), then, aside from the Flanker which is quite unique, then the way you spell sex in the city is F-14’s and J-10’s, nothing else qualify, therefore…
Nothing China wanted in that Spruce Goose except the means to check out the nuts and bolts of it so as to apply it to Chinese procucts of the future.
I mean how’s about a C-919-800 (800 = seating capacity) as a “long haul motherships” to connect the 2050-2100 world as opposed to Dream Liners??? Definitely a doable by 2050 you know…
Hey, no harm in wishing, for now, of course…
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Of course China is the only nation exsiting on earth which will rule the world in near future, and it will be a better world then to live in, may be I wull not see that, I wish the best for China. good luck , carry on.
The Ukrainians know that for their sexy but aging transport organ is to use it now or lose it completely for sure.
Are we talking USS Starship Enterprises here 😉 ?
What a cumbersome, useless, and ugly piece of shied. Not aerodynamically-Chinese enough for our likes. Pure China-picking-fiction a’la regular intervals.
Once upon a time, everything China was picked-on as derivatives of Me and My 23 American. Now that no white supremacist-black lives matters genomes exist in Chinese goods and Russian products today isn’t even near par those of China’s, they now need another bogyman to blame on don’t tgey?
So Ukraine? Nahhhh! No such duckling in our liking…
😉
An 225 was supposedly designed to carry 200 fully armed soldiers with additional military cargo, to the battlefield with rough airstrips! It is not for airlifting passenger Seat!