MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

World’s largest cargo aircraft lands in Sao Paulo

The mighty Antonov AN 225 which can fly 250 tons of payload

The world’s largest cargo aircraft and the largest fixed-wing, Russia’s Antonov AN 225 landed over the weekend in one of Sao Paulo’s airports, Guarulhos loaded with equipment for Brazil’s oil and gas government managed corporation Petrobras.

The first trip of an Antonov AN225 to South America attracted local media and hundreds of curious onlookers to Brazil’s largest air freight terminal.

The Antonov AN 225 with a crew of seven can carry 1.500 people in its cargo area or be loaded with 250 tons.

In this case the huge aircraft transported three giant valves for Petrobras.

According to technical data the 84 metres long aircraft has a wing span of 88.4 metres and is 18.1 metres high. She can cruise at 850 kilometres per hour and has autonomy of 4.500 kilometres fully loaded.

The Antonov An-225 is powered by six ZMKB Progress D-18 turbines and is commercially available for flying over-sized payloads due to the unique size of its cargo deck. She is considered a strategic airlift transport aircraft which was built by the Antonov Desing Bureau of the late USSR.

Compared to the Airbus A380, the world’s largest commercial passenger aircraft, the European model is higher than the Antonov AN 225: 24.08 metres.