JOIN USMriya (dream in Ukrarian), the largest aircraft in the world, landed at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport here at Shamshabad in the early hours of Friday.
The deafening roar of 6 mighty engines of the Antonov An-225 shattered the midnight silence on the outskirts of Hyderabad. The 640-tonne, maximum take-off weight, behemoth arrived from Turkmenbashi in Central Asia and will proceed to Jakarta.
The aircraft is destined for Perth, Australia. The aircraft is carrying a 133-tonne generator for a Western Australian mining company along with a crew of 21. The total journey involves a flying time of about 26 hours spread over 3 days. The Mriya will be taking rest at the RGIA for 20 hours for refuelling.
According to Rishabh Birla, MD, Air Shagoon (network) Pvt Ltd, upto 50,000 people are expected at the Perth airport next Sunday to watch the gigantic aircraft in Australia. According to a statement, Hyderabad was chosen as it had the required the infrastructure to handle such aircraft. Narinder Nath, chief operations officer of Air Shagoon, the company handling the ground operations, said that it took 25 days to secure permission from the DGCA.
Agreement with Antonov
According to press release, Reliance Defence has signed a Strategic Partnership Agreement with Antonov of Ukraine for assembly, manufacture and MRO of Antonov platforms in India, both for the commercial and military market. Reliance Defense and Antonov would jointly address various requirements, including 50-80 seat passenger aircraft program of the HAL.
Air Marshal M Matheswaran (Retd), president, Aerospace Business of Reliance Defense Ltd said, "Reliance and Antonov have ventured out to create India’s Aerospace major in the private sector. Their technical expertise with Reliance’s business innovation is sure to translate ‘Make in India’ a huge success."
Sergey Semovonik, vice-president, Antonov-Ukraine, said "Yesterday, Antonov with Reliance Group have submitted the joint proposal for creating of passengers regional aircraft. Today, we brought the largest aircraft to India to make the Indian side confident that Antonov is a reliable partner."
Ukraine Ambassador to India Dr Igor Polikha said, "We are hopeful that the Indian public and Indian specialists will see with their own eyes the unique potential of Ukraine aviation industry."
An (Antonov) class of aircraft have long served the IAF and Navy for over 5 decades. Currently, the IAF has more than 100 An-32 aircraft on its inventory, having completed its last life cycle upgrade they will be due for replacements soon.
India has requirement of over 200 medium lift turbofan aircraft valued at Rs 35,000 crore for its armed forces. The programme will be located at India’s first integrated Aerospace Park i.e. Dhirubhai Ambani Aerospace Park at MIHAN, Nagpur.