Airplanes That Carry Other Airplanes
A cargo aircraft also known as freight aircraft is specially
designed for carrying goods, rather than passengers. They are usually
devoid of passenger amenities, and generally feature one or more large
doors for the loading and unloading of cargo. Aircraft designed for
cargo flight usually have a number of features that distinguish them
from conventional passenger aircraft: a "fat" looking fuselage, a
high-wing to allow the cargo area to sit near the ground, a large number
of wheels to allow it to land at unprepared locations, and a
high-mounted tail to allow cargo to be driven directly into and off the
aircraft.
The biggest and heaviest cargo carrier is the Antonov
An-225 Mriya introduced into service in 1988. The Antonov An-225 was
designed to airlift the Energia rocket's boosters and the Buran space
shuttle for the Soviet space program. The An-225 can carry ultra-heavy
and oversize freight, up to 250,000 kg internally or 200,000 kg on the
upper fuselage.
The An-225 has become the workhorse of the
Antonov Airlines fleet, transporting objects once thought impossible to
move by air, such as locomotives and 150-ton generators. It has become
an asset to international relief organizations for its ability to
quickly transport huge quantities of emergency supplies during disaster
relief operations.
In
September 2001, carrying 4 main battle tanks at a record load of 253.82
tonnes of cargo, the An-225 flew at an altitude of 2 km over a closed
circuit of 1,000 km at a speed of 763.2 km/h. On August 2009, the
Antonov 225 carried the heaviest single cargo item ever sent via air
freight – a 189 ton generator for a gas power plant in Armenia.
A
second An-225 was partially built during the late 1980s for the Soviet
space program, but it was never completed following the collapse of the
Soviet Union in 1991 and the cancellation of the Buran space program. A
decision was made in September 2006 to complete the second An-225, but
lack of funds have delayed the completion of the aircraft once again.
According to different sources, the second jet is 60-70% complete.
The Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle Mystic (DSRV 1) is carefully loaded onto a Russian-built Antonov An –124
Antonov
An-124 is another heavy lifter. It has been used to transport the Atlas
V launch vhenicles, satellites and other airplanes. On May 1987, an
An-124 set a world record, covering the distance of 20,151 km without
refuelling with a takeoff weight of 455,000 kg. The flight took 25 hours
and 30 minutes. An An-124 appeared in the James Bond film Die Another Day.
The
Super Guppy is used extensively by NASA to ferry components for the
International Space Station and Project Orion. The Super Guppy aircraft
was acquired by NASA from the European Space Agency under an
International Space Station barter agreement. Manufactured by Airbus
Industries, ESA supplied the aircraft to offset the cost to NASA of
carrying ESA experiment equipment to the station as part of two future
Space Shuttle flights. The new Super Guppy is the latest version in a
long line of Guppy cargo aircraft used by NASA. Guppy aircraft were used
in several past space programs, including Gemini, Apollo, and Skylab,
to transport spacecraft components.
A
crowd in the Georgetown neighborhood of Seattle watches NASA's Super
Guppy aircraft approach Boeing Field, carrying a key piece of a space
shuttle mockup that will go on display at Seattle's Museum of Flight.
Photo credit: MSNBC
Photo credit: MSNBC
NASA
employs another extensively modified Boeing 747 airliners called the
Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) used to transport Space Shuttle orbiters.
The SCAs were used to ferry Space Shuttles from landing sites back to
the Shuttle Landing Facility at the Kennedy Space Center, and to and
from other locations too distant for the orbiters to be delivered by
ground transport.
Another
dolphin shaped cargo carrier is Airbus Beluga. The primary task of
Airbus Beluga is to carry Airbus components ready for final assembly
across Europe, but they are also available for charter work, and have
been used to carry a variety of special loads, including space station
components, large, very delicate artwork, industrial machinery, and
entire helicopters.
At
the Shuttle Landing Facility, the European Space Agency's research
laboratory, designated Columbus, is being offloaded onto an Airbus
Transport International platform
