Issue 339: Power of Six

“We were all blown away by it,” Leanne told Australian Aviation.

“Jarrod hounded us to bring him back to Perth on Tuesday, so we relented. ” The Swanwicks returned to Perth on Monday night and they were up at 3. 30am to get a good vantage point to see the monster takeoff at 5. 30am on Tuesday May 17.

Just after liftoff, which was “incredible”, it was back to Bunbury and school.

It is estimated that more than 30,000 people visited Perth Airport or its surrounds to see the six-engine monster, which visited Perth to deliver a 117-tonne power generator for South32’s Worsley Alumina plant near Collie in the south-west of Western Australia.

Thousands more viewed the plane on its approach to Perth Airport on Sunday.

And several thousand were at Perth Airport early on Tuesday May 17 to see the An-225 for one last time before it headed off on its next assignment in Europe.

The An-225 flew from Perth to Dubai and from there on to Italy and Germany.

Andriy Blagovisniy, head of the commercial department at Antonov Airlines, told Australian Aviation that the airline was pleased with Perth Airport for its “good preparation to the first operation of the An-225 Mriya to Australia” and “hearty welcome accorded to our aircraft and crew” by the people of Perth.

“We appreciate this cooperation and hope for its further development in the operation of our An-225 and An-124-100 aircraft to Perth and other Australian airports in the future,” said Blagovisniy.

Australian-based aviation consultant Shaun Aisen who looks after Antonov Airlines downunder said that the operation to bring the generator from Prague to Perth was executed without any hitches.

Putting the giant generator into perspective, Aisen noted that it weighed 1. 4 times the takeoff weight of a 737-800.

“The cargo was extremely dense, requiring it to spread to meet the floor bearing limitations of the cargo floor, said Aisen.

“The cargo’s weight required the use of the Antonov An-225 or it would otherwise have had no option but to be shipped by sea to Australia. ” The transport of the generator started on May 10 in the city of Pilsen in the Czech Republic, from where it was brought overnight by a special multiple-axles truck to Prague.

At the airport of the Czech capital the 8. 80m long, 3. 50m wide and 3. 20m high generator was loaded into the An-225 and secured with more than 30 fixation points.

“From a loading and unloading perspective, a specialised track system was utilised to move the cargo into and from the hull with the use of internal winches. During the load/unload process, the aircraft kneeled to allow the tracks to be extended beyond the nose door where two external cranes with a 150-tonne lifting capacity each were utilised for the transfer of the cargo from the ground-based trailers to the aircraft ramp. ” Aisen said that “the weight and high density of the cargo uplifted put this shipment into the top one per cent of difficulty for airfreight shipments. ” While the shipment’s weight had its challenges the en route logistics and flight approvals were pretty standard, although lack of takeoff approval from Jakarta meant a switch to Kuala Lumpur for the last leg to Perth.

However, that also proved a problem with an air traffic control mix-up causing a 90 minute delay.

“From an operator’s perspective, the operation went without a hitch. It was well planned, efficient and met all planned timelines,” said Aisen.

The client selected Karpeles Flight Services, the DB Schenker specialists for chartering of aircraft to handle the charter arrangements. Project management and execution of the shipment was handled by DB Schenker Adelaide and Perth Offices.

Ron Koehler, CEO of Schenker Australia said that “to organise air freight in an Antonov 225 is an absolute highlight. ” “The excitement was great, there were high expectations. ” Koehler said that “the cooperation between our experts in Adelaide and Perth with Czech colleagues went smoothly. We are really proud of this order of our clients here in Australia. ”

The weight and high density of the cargo uplifted put this shipment into the top one per cent of difficulty for airfreight shipments.

By the numbers

The An-225 Mriya was designed and built between 1984 and 1988 to carry Russia’s Buran Space Shuttle between landing site and launch pad.

The unique airlifter has set 240 world records, including carrying the heaviest cargo at 253 tonnes and the heaviest single piece of cargo with a mass of 186. 7 tonnes.

It also lays claim to carrying the longest ever piece of cargo – at 42. 1m.

As well as commercial payloads, the An-225 is used extensively for disaster relief and was used in Haiti and Japan.

It has a flightcrew of six and is 84m long with a wing span of 88. 4m.

Compared with a 747-400, its wings area at 905m2 is almost double and its maximum takeoff weight of 640,000kg is 40 per cent greater.

Its six engines produce a combined 306,000lb of thrust and its horizontal tail is wider than a Lancaster bomber’s main wing.

Blagovisniy talks passionately about the future of the An-225.

“My office overlooks it when it is at home and every time I gaze at it I feel pride in the Antonov company and might of human mind,” he said.

That mind was then Antonov chief designer Petr Balabuyev.

An aeronautical engineer with a degree in international relations, Blagovisniy’s role is to sell the virtues of the An-225 and the smaller An- 124, a regular visitor to Australia.

“It is unique and can carry cargo no other aircraft can uplift,” he says.

The An-225 performs about two missions a month to all corners of the globe – taking giant turbine blades from China to Denmark, generators from Germany to Armenia or disaster relief from Europe to Japan.

Blagovisniy said the An-225, though built in the mid ’80s, is certified to keep flying through to 2033 as a minimum.

In 2013, Ukrainian civil aviation authorities cleared it for 4,000 landings, 20,000 hours of flight and 45 years of operation.

The An-225 first flew on December 21 1988 with a 74-minute flight from Kiev.

The giant appeared for the first time in the West at the 1989 Paris Airshow and then was displayed at the 1990 and 1992 Farnborough Airshows.

Two aircraft were ordered, but only one completed. The second is 80 per cent complete but several attempts to finish it have failed.

The second An-225 was intended to be a more effective cargo transport with a rear cargo door and a single vertical stabiliser.

Pulling a crowd

The crowds for the visit of the An-225 to Australia exceeded those for the Concorde or the first 747 thanks to today’s social media phenomenon and online videos.

The airport provided a special viewing area with facilities and arranged with Antonov that no matter which way the An-225 landed it would taxi past the dedicated viewing area.

However. the interest in the An-225 overwhelmed the airport’s capacity and gridlock ensued. At least 15 passengers missed their flights.

But the traffic challenges failed to dampen the spirits of the public, some of whom camped overnight in their cars to grab the prime viewing positions at the airport.

Fickle winds and a light shower made it difficult to forecast which runway the An-225 would use and the runway was changed to 21 just 45 minutes before touchdown.

Cheers went up as the An-225 touched down according to The West Australian’s Kim McDonald.

As Perth resident John Norcic told the newspaper, while his kids said he was “crazy” for coming out so early in the morning, “it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. ” The king of the sky was in Perth for just 42 hours but it captivated Perth and set online and social media records for videos and stories viewed across the Seven West media network that led the city’s coverage of the An-225’s visit.

But the coverage of its first visit to Australia was far greater than just Perth – it spanned the globe.

A Seven News report on the day of its arrival has had a reach of over 12 million.

And news reports were picked by all major global outlets including CNN and the BBC.

Every major record for Channel 7 in Perth and The West Australian’s website thewest. com. au was broken by the An-225, underscoring the extraordinary interest of aviation with the general public.

And the records were not just broken – they were smashed by a factor of five and more.

Seven News on the Sunday night of the arrival was the highest rating this year.

The search term ‘An-225 Perth’ was the highest on Google Australia-wide on the Sunday of the aircraft’s arrival.

For the month of May on thewest. com. au three of the top five stories and 13 of the top 20 videos were about the An-225, including eight of the top 10.

With such huge public interest, what should not be lost on authorities and promoters is the enormous draw of unique aircraft to the Australian public.

Airshows that are weekly events in the summer season in Europe and the UK are far rarer in Australia and perhaps opportunities are being missed to promote aviation.

The lessons and impact of the An-225’s visit to Perth should not be overlooked.

It is unique and can carry cargo no other aircraft can uplift.