HYDERABAD: The world’s largest cargo aircraft – Antonov An-225 ‘Mriya’ (Dream in Russian) is scheduled to make its first landing in India this week on May 13 at the Rajiv Gandhi International airport here in Hyderabad.

The Ukraine-based, Antonov Company’s aircraft has a wide body, powered by six turbofan engines and is the longest and heaviest airplane ever built, with a maximum takeoff weight of 640 tonnes. It also has the largest wingspan of any aircraft in operational service. Specially built to undertake transcontinental route airlifting load between 180-230 tonnes, the aircraft will be coming into Hyderabad from Turkmenistan and will be making an overnight technical halt here at Hyderabad.

Partnership agreement

The development comes close on the heels of Anil Ambani-led Reliance Defence signing a strategic partnership agreement last month with Antonov company of Ukraine for the assembly, manufacture, and maintenance and repair of is platforms in India, both for the commercial and the military market.

Reliance Defence together with Antonov would jointly address various requirements including 50-80 seat passenger aircraft programme of the HAL, in its basic configuration and in all its variants such as transport, maritime patrol and other military roles, the company said in a statement.

Why Hyderabad?

As per reports, Hyderabad was chosen after evaluating a number of factors like runway length, technical facilities, air traffic density and proximity to the trans-continental air-route.