Tells Students that Next Aircraft Will be Memorial to Lost Aviators

The largest aircraft in the world, recently destroyed, may be returning sooner than originally expected, if off-the-cuff remarks made by the Ukrainian head of state are any indication.

For a brief time, it appeared that the legendary An-225 could be built at a discount, as Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky made mention of an $800 million price tag for the aircraft's successor. Those who remember the vow made by Ukrainian aerospace corporation Ukroboronprom in February would recall a much higher price tag at the time: $3 billion, to start. Anyone familiar with bespoke aircraft design and development knows that the initial stated price is often just the beginning. 

In a digital meeting with students, Zelensky made mention of an attempt some time ago to obtain funding for a successor to the Mriya, approaching the Turkish aerospace industry for assistance. When the deal was floated is not specified, but the language barrier had created a few misunderstandings in the west who took it to have referred to a recent attempt at a deal. It seems unlikely, as the price tag is far lower than required today for a ground-up aircraft. Other An-225s have been worked on in fits and starts over the years, always running up against the constraints of funding and relative lack of demand for cargo carriage on the world's largest aircraft. 

During the battle of Hostomel Airport, the last remaining An-225, immobilized in its hangar while undergoing maintenance, was destroyed. The aircraft was the only functional Mriya in existence, the sole inheritor of the old Soviet space program. The aircraft appears to be unrecoverable to any meaningful extent, taking damage and sitting under a broken ceiling for months of fighting. While talking about the intent to recreate the plane, Zelensky waxed poetic, describing the replacement An-225 as a working monument to all the aviators lost during the Russian incursion. 

"But in this case," he said to the Ukrainian students, "It's not a matter of money, it's a matter of ambition. We were approached by Ukroboronprom, the Antonov team. (The successor company and likely head of a revived An-225 program) This is a question of the image of our country and all the excellent professional pilots who died in this war. How much they have done, and today we can already say how many lives of people who remained in Mariupol, especially in Azovstal they saved ... How many pilots gave their lives to bring everything there, from weapons to water. And how many wounded they took from there. A large number of these people died heroically,"said Zelensky.

"To build a Mriya for the sake of the memory of such heroes is the right state position," Zelensky added.

FMI: www.interfax.com.ua