The world's largest cargo plane, the Antonov An-225 Mriya, arrived at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport on Thursday, April 30, 2020, while transporting medical supplies to Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Bill Roth / ADN)
The world’s largest cargo plane, the Antonov An-225 Mriya, landed in Anchorage on Thursday for a layover while transporting medical supplies from China to Canada. The An-225 is a one-of-a-kind plane originally developed to transport the Soviet Union’s Buran shuttle and components of the Energiya rocket.
Antonov An-124 Ruslan, left, taxis for departure as the world's largest cargo plane, Antonov An-225 Mriya, arrived at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport on Thursday, April 30, 2020, while transporting medical supplies to Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Bill Roth / ADN)
The Ukrainian airplane recently returned to the skies after an 18-month modernization overhaul, and has been transporting medical supplies from China to countries around the world. Before this flight to Montreal, the plane delivered more than 8 million face masks to Germany.
The world's largest cargo plane, the Antonov An-225 Mriya, is parked at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport on Thursday, April 30, 2020. The aircraft was transporting medical supplies to Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Loren Holmes / ADN)
The An-225 is the world’s heaviest plane, with a maximum takeoff weight of 1.4 million pounds, and can carry large, bulky cargo like wind turbine blades.
A person takes a photo of the world's largest cargo plane, the Antonov An-225 Mriya, while it is parked at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport on Thursday, April 30, 2020. The aircraft was transporting medical supplies to Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Loren Holmes / ADN)
Antonov, the company that operates the plane, has been working since 2016 to complete the build of a second An-225, which was started in the 1980s but never completed.
The world's largest cargo plane, the Antonov An-225 Mriya, landed at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport on Thursday, April 30, 2020, while transporting medical supplies to Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Bill Roth / ADN)
[Because of a high volume of comments requiring moderation, we are temporarily disabling comments on many of our articles so editors can focus on the coronavirus crisis and other coverage. We invite you to write a letter to the editor or reach out directly if you’d like to communicate with us about a particular article. Thanks.]