Charter air transportation of oversized and extra heavy loads worldwide

In April 1986, Antonov Company received a request from the Government of the USSR for the transportation of a wheel of a hydro turbine, measuring some 6 m in diameter and weighing 80 tons. The wheel had to be urgently delivered from Kharkiv in Ukraine to Tashkent, Uzbekistan for construction of the Tash-Kumyr Hydroelectric Power Station. Although the aircraft was not equipped with a loading system at that time, the government’s task was successfully completed. It was the first time that outsize and super-heavy cargo was transported by air. After the flight, the development of specialised loading equipment for the AN-124 aircraft began. Thanks to this equipment, the transportation of super-heavy single pieces and new world records in airlift have continued.

Antonov Airlines operate the unique AN-225 Mriya – the largest and heaviest aircraft in the world. The aircraft is powered by six turbojet engines, with a maximum take-off weight of 640 tons. The aircraft has a length of 84 m, wingspan of 88.4 m and height of 18.1 m. Its maximum payload is 250 tons. AN-225 was designed by the Antonov Company for transportation of the Energia rocket boosters and Buran space shuttle between the space programme facilities of the former USSR. AN-225 performed its maiden flight on December 21, 1988 and began its commercial operation in 2001. Since then, Mriya has flown all over the world transporting various cargoes and has been included in the Guinness World Record book.

On September 22, 1993, AN-124-100 Ruslan of Antonov Airlines transported a SIEMENS generator stator weighing 124 tons from Frankfurt in Germany to New-Delhi, India. To ensure that the aircraft floor could safely accommodate the weight, a special transport frame was designed and built to provide an equal load distribution. The frame worked similarly to skis on snow. The total weight of the generator stator, together with transport frame, was 135.2 tons (298 065 pounds). The flight was chartered to replace a damaged generator stator at the New-Delhi power station, which was subsequently transported to Germany for repair using the same aircraft. The flight set yet another Guinness World Record for the airlift of the heaviest single piece.

On June 9, 1994, Antonov Airlines delivered a 109-ton General Motors locomotive on an AN-124-100 from London, Ontario, Canada, to Dublin, Ireland. It became a record flight when the 3200 hp locomotive crossed the Atlantic by air. The flight took 12 hours with technical stops in Montreal, Gander, and Reykjavik for refueling. The locomotive could also lay claim to an unofficial speed record for a train by achieving a speed of over 850 km/h (530 mph) – about twice the speed of the fastest trains. The flight was chartered to begin clearance tests and driver training in advance of the delivery of a main order for Irish Rail. During the operation, Antonov Airlines set another Guinness World Record for transporting the heaviest cargo (plus equipment) of 146 tons.

In September 2001, AN-225 Mriya transported five T-72 main battle tanks with total weight of 253.8 tons. During the flight, Pilot-in-Command, Oleksandr Halunenko and his crew set 214 national records and 124 world records including: - 253.8 t payload uplifted to an altitude of 10 570 meters; - achieved a speed of 763m/h with a payload of 253.8 tons over a 1,000km route. One of the design engineers of AN-225 recalled: “The flight was operated during warm season and normally no one tries to beat payload records during this time. But the aircraft managed to do that”.

On August 11, 2009, Antonov Airlines set another world record by transporting a 174-ton ALSTOM generator from Frankfurt in Germany to Yerevan in Armenia. Due to Armenia being a land-locked country with mountainous areas, the generator could only be transported by air. Only the biggest aircraft in the world, AN-225, was capable of the task. To equally distribute the weight over the cargo floor, the generator was placed into a special transport frame. Having a total payload of 187.6 tons (including the frame), the generator became the heaviest single piece cargo ever transported by air. The project was required to expand the Yerevan power station and was included in the Guinness World Record book. It still remains a valid world record today.

In June 2010, Antonov Airlines transported two test wind turbine blades 42.1 meters (138 feet) long from Shijiazhuang in China to Skrydstrup airport, Denmark. Although the total weight of the blades was only 15 tons, the AN-225’s cargo hold of 43.3 meters was capable of accepting the lengthy dimensions. 3D-modelling was used to identify correct positioning of the blades inside the cargo compartment. The blades had to be delivered urgently to Denmark for special strength and life-time tests. Therefore, sea and road transportation were impractical, taking around one month to deliver. Mriya completed the flight in just 12 hours.

In September 2012, AN-225 Mriya set another Guinness World Record. It was the highest altitude art exhibition ever organized on board of the aircraft, which reached a height of 10,150 meters (33,300 feet) above sea level. Antonov Airlines set the record together with Kyiv Producer Center Boyko, the main art exhibition organizer in AN-225. The highest art exhibition in the world included 500 works of art created by 120 artists. The flight was performed during the 8th AVIASVIT XXI Air Show in Kyiv and was recorded by a Guinness World Record official. The airlift champion, AN-225, had also succeeded in high art.

In November 2016, Antonov Airlines transported a 155t ABB transformer from San-Paulo (Brazil) to Santiago (Chile). Airlift was the only possible method of delivering the transformer, and the only aircraft capable of uplifting the necessary payload was, and still is, AN-225. To ensure equal distribution of the load over the cargo hold floor according to a concept developed by Antonov engineers, a special transport frame was designed and manufactured in Switzerland. The frame weighing over 23 tons was disassembled and delivered by B747 from Europe to Brazil. With a total weight of 182 tons comprising the frame and connections, the transformer duly became the second heaviest single-piece cargo ever carried by air, and the heaviest in Americas.

In summer 2018, Antonov Airlines successfully completed a series of 12 An-225 flights, becoming the largest project by number of flights and total payload ever carried in the commercial history of AN-225. During the consecutive flights the aircraft delivered 12 modules of Heat Recovery Steam Generators, each weighing 160 tons, from Iquique in Chile to Chimore, Bolivia. To equally distribute the cargo weight over the aircraft floor, a special loading system of Antonov Airlines was used, as well as damping panels and reverse bend technology. The project aided the development of the Entre Rios Electric Power Station in Bolivia. The customer selected transportation with AN-225 to guarantee the most reliable and fastest solution to such a challenging logistical task.