Antonov AN-225: The World's Largest Cargo Aircraft

The Antonov AN-225 Mriya was the single largest and heaviest cargo aircraft ever flown — a one-of-a-kind, six-engined freighter designed to carry loads no other airframe could accept. It became the global reference point for outsize and super-heavy air cargo: it could carry single pieces weighing well over 150 tonnes and cargo too long or too tall for any production freighter.

Only one AN-225 was ever completed, and it was destroyed in 2022. No aircraft currently in service replicates its capability, but the missions it served — power-generation modules, mining and resource plant, aircraft and aerospace structures, locomotives and emergency relief equipment — are still flown today on the next tier of heavy-lift freighters.

The AN-225 was designed for payloads approaching 250 tonnes, with a cargo hold roughly 43 metres long, 6.4 metres wide and 4.4 metres high — a deck longer than the entire first powered flight by the Wright brothers. Its full-width nose door and kneeling undercarriage allowed straight-through, drive-on loading of single outsize pieces.

What set it apart was not only tonnage but the ability to swallow indivisible loads — single modules that could not be broken down — in one lift, where they would otherwise require sea freight and weeks of transit.

• Design payload — up to ~250 tonnes
• Cargo deck — ~43 m long, ~6.4 m wide, ~4.4 m high
• Loading — full-width nose door, kneeling undercarriage
• Best for — indivisible, super-heavy and very long single pieces

With the AN-225 no longer flying, the Antonov AN-124 is the practical workhorse for genuine outsize cargo — payloads up to ~120 tonnes through full-width nose and rear doors with onboard cranes. For loads beyond a single AN-124, missions are engineered across multiple freighters or staged movements.

Send Aviall the dimensions and weights of your cargo with the origin and destination, and we will engineer the lift against the aircraft actually available today — and tell you honestly when it must be split or moved by sea.