On this day in aviation history, 43 years ago (December 26, 1982), the Antonov An-124 Ruslan flew for the first time. The Ruslan, Russian for Lion, is a large strategic airlift transport aircraft. The An-124 was designed by the Antonov design bureau within the Ukrainian SSR of the Soviet Union (USSR) during the 1980s. Known by NATO as the Condor, the An-124 is the heaviest operating aircraft, and has the second heaviest gross weight of any plane flying today (behind its sister ship: the recently destroyed one-off Antonov An-225 Mriya). The An-124 Ruslan remains the largest military transport aircraft still in service. Development of the aircraft began in 1971, initially referred to as Izdeliye 400 (Product #400). At the time, there was a shortage of heavy airlift aircraft within the Military Transport Aviation Command (Komandovaniye voyenno-transportnoy aviatsii / VTA) arm of the Soviet Air Force. Assembly of the first An-124 began in 1979, and the maiden flight occurred 3 years later. The Ruslan made its premier to the Western world at the 1985 Paris Air Show.
Since the An-124’s first flight, Antonov has built a total of 57 airframes. The Ruslan currently flies with the Russian Aerospace Forces, Volga-Dnepr Airlines, and Antonov Airlines. In May of 1987, the An-124 set a world record for flying the distance of 10,881 nautical miles without refuelling. This flight lasted 25 hours and 30 minutes, and the takeoff weight was 455,000 kilograms. An-124s have been used recently on humanitarian missions, including COVID-19 and post-earthquake supplies delivery. The Antonov An-124 has a crew of eight – pilot, copilot, navigator, chief flight engineer, electrical flight engineer, radio operator, and two loadmasters. Ruslan has a capacity for 88 passengers in the upper aft fuselage, and an additional 350 passengers in the hold, on a palletised seating system. Alternatively, a payload of 264,555 pounds can be flown. Length for the An-124 measures 226 feet – 8 inches, wingspan covers a staggering 240 feet – 6 inches, and the aircraft sits 69 feet – 2 inches tall. Four Progress D-18T high-bypass turbofan engines, each with 51,000 pounds of thrust, power the Ruslan to a cruise speed of 500 to 537 mph. Range is set at 2,000 nautical miles with max payload, while service ceiling is 39,000 feet.
