Up close with the world's largest plane

The Antonov An-225 is the world’s largest aircraft. BBC Future visits this enormous transport at its home in Ukraine.

The Antonov An-225 is a Soviet-era leviathan with a wingspan of more than 88m (290ft) that can carry up to 250 tonnes of cargo.

BBC Future visited the aircraft – the only one of its kind flying today – at its base on the outskirts of the Ukrainian capital Kiev.

• Read the full story: The world's biggest plane may have a new mission

(Text by Stephen Dowling, all pictures by Anton Skyba.)

More aviation design stories:

• A behind-the-scenes look at the Airbus A380
• The plane so good it's still in production after 60 years
• Rebuilding the USSR's 'flying tank'

Correction: An earlier version of this gallery featured pictures of the An-124 mislabelled as the An-225.

The An-225 was built to transport the Buran, the Soviet equivalent of the Space Shuttle. But with the breakdown of the USSR, it found a new role – transporting huge cargo loads

The An-225 is essentially a ‘stretched’ version of another Antonov design, the four-engine An-124 ‘Condor’ (pictured), which serves the Russian Air Force 

The An-225 can carry everything from tanks to wind turbine blades. At 34.3m (142 ft), the hold is longer than the Wright Brothers' first successful flight

The An-225’s modified tail was designed to make the aircraft easier to handle when carrying heavy loads, and to minimise air disturbance from carrying the Buran shuttle on its back

Anton Skyba

The An-225 is so heavy that it needs 32 wheels to help distribute its weight

Anton Skyba

While the Airbus A380 is the largest commercial airliner in the world, the An-225 is still larger and heavier

The movement of the Antonov’s production from Kiev to China means the end of an era for the Ukrainian aircraft maker