Antonov An-225 Mriya Rebuild: What’s The Latest?

When the Antonov An-225 was destroyed in 2022 amidst the first flush of the Ukraine-Russia War, it was a devastating blow to many avgeeks around the world. After all, the An-225 with the multitude of aviation records it had set, was an iconic aircraft. It has been photographed various times, but one of its more iconic pictures involves carrying the Buran spaceplane. This aircraft’s length of the cargo hold was greater than the Wright brothers’ first flight”. When news surfaced in 2017 that the Chinese would be interested in operating a fleet of the An-225 for their space missions, Nikolay Kalashnikov, the lead engineer of the An-225 project, told the BBC that An-225 was entangled with Ukraine’s past and the future:

“The Chinese want to buy from us this plane and there’s no harm in it, but of course no one wants to sell the aircraft…The Mriya* is not separable from Ukraine, it’s like our child, and it’s something our children, and our grandchildren can always be proud of.”

[An-225 is often referred to as “Mriya”- a word that means “dream” in the Ukrainian language].

But this inseparable part of Ukraine was wrenched away from the nation as it was destroyed in the Battle of Hostomel Airport (HML) in February 2022. Following the confirmation of the destruction, the manufacturer of the aircraft tweeted, “DREAMS do not burn” – prompting to the idea of reconstruction of the An-225.

5 most wonderful aircraft destroyed in the Russia-Ukraine war

Only a couple of months later, President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, expressed his desire to rebuild the aircraft “for the sake of the memory of heroes“, referring to the pilots who died during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine:

“We wanted to build it, we needed $800 million. I appealed to the President of Turkey with a proposal to build the 2nd MRIYA, but we did not find the money…..But in this case, it’s not a matter of money, it’s a matter of ambition. We were approached by Ukroboronprom, the Antonov team. This is a question of the image of our country and all the excellent professional pilots who died in this war,”

Three years have passed since Zelensky’s afore-quoted comments were released. Are we any close to rebuilding the An-225? Let’s find out.

Ukraine might not have the $3 billion for rebuilding the An-225

Here’s the photograph of the Antonov An-225 captured in 2022.

One might almost say that the aircraft needs to rise from the ashes, bringing the images of Tahar Ben Jelloun’s (a Moroccan poet) poem ” The Rising of the Ashes”

“I pace the abyss.

I descend. I am suspended.

The ashes still smolder. They rise, surround me, then fall again,

grey dust that makes my body a sand-filled hourglass.

I crumble. I am old abandoned rock.

I am sand and time.

I am faceless.”

One of the major factors that dictates whether the An-225 will be rebuilt is how much money will be needed for the reconstruction. Different news sources have different estimates. Antonov Company had written on X (when the platform was called Twitter) in November 2022 rebuilding the Mriya would cost $500 million. A similar figure was quoted in The New York Times in 2023**.

[** Note: The figure is $300 million less than what Zelensky had initially assessed].

A report in CNN said that Ukroboronprom, the Ukrainian state defense company that manages Antonov, had estimated the reconstruction cost to be $3 billion. The publication further stated Ukroboronprom “vowed to make Russia pay“, with a projected rebuild time of at least five years. Some of the most conservative estimates say that the rebuild can take place for as low as $120 million.

As the construction of the original An-225 took place in just under three and a half years, had the necessary funds been generated (and the necessary technical and operational works had been underway), the An-225 would have been up and running in the skies by now.

Ukraine’s flailing economy can’t afford billions on Mriya’s reconstruction

Research done by the European Union suggested that even if the Ukraine Russia war had waned by 2024, Ukraine’s real GDP would
reach its pre-war level only in 2030. The war has also led to a drop in Ukraine’s potential output by more than USD 150 billion (or
about 20%) in 2022. Here are a few other key figures about Ukraine’s flailing economy as it sees an extraordinary destruction:

• Following the war, the gross domestic product (GDP) fell by almost 30% in 2022.
• Direct damage as measured in 2023 is measured at USD 152 billion.
• Recovery and reconstruction costs of USD 486 billion (in the next decade).
• Ukraine’s state budget anticipated  UAH 1.6 trillion (aboutUSD 41 billion, 19% higher than 2023) trade deficit in 2024

When the research was conducted, it was estimated that the GDP of the nation would grow by 4%, meaning that the war-wracked nation would have a chance to dedicate some money towards the reconstruction of the An-225 in the future. It is also not the case that Ukraine would, on its own, rebuild the An-225. Antonov Company has stated that “this project will be carried out in broad international cooperation with the participation of leading companies and enterprises in the global aviation industry“. Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Galactic, has also expressed his readiness to help in the reconstruction of the giant “in any way he can“. 

The reconstructed An-225 won’t be the same as the destroyed Mriya

The total weight of paint applied on the  “Mriya” was 900 kilograms. It was also the first aircraft to use polyurethane paint- a type of paint that is glossy, strong, and durable as it can withstand regular exposure to UV rays, rain, and humidity, without degrading. It might go without saying that when Mriya is restored, the hues of the Ukrainian flag that it so preciously donned will be a part of its livery. However, there are doubts whether all the parts of the restored An-225 would be the same as the original.

Aircraft Painting: What is it, Why is it done, and How?

A piece published by journalist Timur (in meer.com) reported Vladyslav Vlasik, the Chief Designer of the State Enterprise “Antonov,”  to have said that the reconstructed An-225 aircraft would be significantly lighter than the predecessor, whilst also being more powerful. The report further stated:

“Whole parts were removed from the destroyed aircraft and will be installed in the new one. There are no plans to change the aircraft externally, but the interior will be equipped with modern equipment. There may be difficulties, as the piloting system and engine control system need to be developed from scratch. There is also a problem with the D-18 engines. Motor Sich stopped producing them long ago, and a new engine of this type will cost over $20 million. And six of them are needed. The solution might be to install engines that were used on the An-124 “Ruslan” aircraft.”

The AN-225 Mriya is also known by its NATO reporting name “Cossack,”, and according to The National Interest, it “is a heavily redesigned An-124 Ruslan“.  The Antonov An-124, which is the largest military transport in the world, also ranks among the top 5 biggest aircraft ever made. Canada has even sized one Antonov An-124 (operated by Russia) that landed in Pearson International Airport (YYZ), and wanted to give it to Ukraine. You can read about it in our piece below:

Top 5 biggest aircraft in the world: Why were they made?

Antonov company has a complete fuselage for a Mriya plane in storage. This fuselage is a leftover from an abandoned plan (from the time of the Sovie Union) to build the second An-225. The other parts of the An-225 that have been salvaged include:

• Flaps
• Fuel Pumps
• Tail assembly
• Three of six jet engines
• Some parts of the hydraulic systems and the landing gear

One can fly the An-225 in Microsoft, though

In 2023, Antonov and Microsoft signed an agreement to use the Mriya in Microsoft Flight Simulator.  One might not be able to fly Mriya physically, but Microsoft has made flying this aircraft virtually, possible. Additionally, Microsoft decided to dedicate a part of the sale of its flight simulator to the aircraft’s reconstruction, with Microsoft reporting:

“We decided to give 100% of the gross receipts from the sale of the digital An-225 for one year after launch directly to Antonov Company so the money could be used to rebuild the An-225.”

It has been widely reported that Microsoft’s revival of Mriya in this form was “as close as possible to the original“. There are various cargo options available to players. These include a truck, a train, “regular” pallets and boxes, even a boiler having a mass of 188 tons. Microsoft also wanted to release the software on the date matching the anniversary of the destruction of the An-225.

Will China build the An-225 any time soon?

The hourly cost of operation of the An-225 is $32,000 meant that the An-225 didn’t see as many operations as it could. It used to be neatly tucked away in the Hostomel airport (an aerodrome that used to serve as a top-secret flight testing airfield for Antonov) until its destruction. Sixyears prior to the destruction, a privately-owned aerospace and defense company from China called Airspace Industry Corporation of China (AICC), had signed a cooperation agreement with Antonov for the An-225 programme.

AICC had first contacted Anotov regarding the matter in 2011 after having conducted research about the capabilites of Mriya as an aircraft that would help launch satellites in space. The president of AICC, Zhang Yousheng, felt that the An-225 would be “the centrepiece of a hyper ambitious plan to add 1,000 heavy lift aircraft over the next 10 years“, and was quoted in the BBC as having said:

” The An-225 can be equipped with spacecraft to high altitude, and can launch commercial satellites at any height below 12,000m….Its launch time is flexible, accurate, and can quickly send the satellite into intended orbit, which greatly reduces launch costs.”

When the agreement was signed, critics believed that China would be able to fly the An-225 by 2020. But even six years (which have encompassed Covid-19 among other significant world events) since, there has been no progress on this front. One has to remember that Antonov habd over the intellectual property rights to China and stated “The rights of the An-225 ‘Mriya’ certificate holder, including An-225 intellectual property rights, will not be reassigned by Antonov State Company to the Chinese side,” the company stated.