# Worlds Largest Aircraft was in MN this last week **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 4, 2014, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-largest-aircraft-was-in-mn-this-last-week/692320 "2014-07-04T03:21:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2014, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-largest-aircraft-was-in-mn-this-last-week/692320/1 "2014-07-04T03:21:07Z")
Arrived home from Denver Monday night, to Terminal 2. As we taxied up, I saw this monstrously huge aircraft parked nearby. Huh. 3 engines on a side. Never seen that before on a jet like that… Pointed it out to my mother, who came to pick me up. Got home and googled. Damn, the only 6 engine commercial aircraft I could find was the [Antonov AN-225](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonov_An-225_Mriya), of which only ONE was built back in the 80’s. Clearly I must be wrong, because why would such a unique beast be parked here of all places? [Sure enough, it was](http://www.startribune.com/video/265644221.html). Was picking up a load of Trane A/C equipment and carrying it to the Middle East. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2014, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-largest-aircraft-was-in-mn-this-last-week/692320/2 "2014-07-04T04:00:04Z")
[It shows up in MKE](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=240035) from time to time to pick up refrigeration stuff as well. Somewhere on the web there’s a site that tracks it’s whereabouts. I think I added that I saw it in Milwaukee a few times, I’m sure they’d be happy if you added that you just saw it. ---
**Author:** ![Battle\_Pope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Battle\_Pope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Battle_Pope)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2014, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-largest-aircraft-was-in-mn-this-last-week/692320/3 "2014-07-04T04:12:41Z")
Nice. I’d love to see it but AFAIK it’s never flown to Australia (even if it did it wouldn’t show up locally, based on this [vid](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxMl3XrCH3E) (youtube) of an IL-76 using _all_ of the runway here to get airborne). I’ve seen a few A380’s fly over but that Antonov must be a sight. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2014, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-largest-aircraft-was-in-mn-this-last-week/692320/4 "2014-07-04T04:23:18Z")
I’ve never seen an An-225. But back in 2003, I lived near Newburgh, NY and I drove by Stewart Airfield every day on my way to work. So I saw dozens of C-5 Galaxies. Those things are huge. They’d just open on the nose and [drive trucks](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/10/Stewart_Air_National_Guard_Base_-_105_AW_C-5.jpg/1024px-Stewart_Air_National_Guard_Base_-_105_AW_C-5.jpg) inside of them. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2014, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-largest-aircraft-was-in-mn-this-last-week/692320/5 "2014-07-04T04:27:44Z")
> [@Battle\_Pope](#): > > Nice. I’d love to see it but AFAIK it’s never flown to Australia (even if it did it wouldn’t show up locally, based on this [vid](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxMl3XrCH3E) (youtube) of an IL-76 using _all_ of the runway here to get airborne). > > I’ve seen a few A380’s fly over but that Antonov must be a sight. It’s funny, that plane doesn’t look like it’s going that fast, but according to wiki, Canberra Airport has two runways, one that’s a mile long and one that’s two miles long. If that’s the short one, the plane was going, what, probably a hundred mph when it took off. Also, IIRC it’s harder for planes to take off in hot weather since the air is less dense. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2014, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-largest-aircraft-was-in-mn-this-last-week/692320/6 "2014-07-04T04:39:50Z")
Back in the late '90s I saw it display at the Paris air show. High-banked maneuvers at low altitude over Le Bourget. Oh yeah, and with the Buran space shuttle on its back. To this day, I cannot explain why I took no photos. Was too awestruck, I guess. I’m hoping I catch it at IAH one of these days. The slightly smaller -125 model visits occasionally. [Quote=Battle Pope] Nice. I’d love to see it but AFAIK it’s never flown to Australia (even if it did it wouldn’t show up locally, based on this vid (youtube) of an IL-76 using all of the runway here to get airborne). [/Quote] I’ve seen that video. The dry narration cracks me up every time. “You’re gonna have to go faster than that, Captain.” Hee. ---
**Author:** ![Battle\_Pope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Battle\_Pope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Battle_Pope)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2014, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-largest-aircraft-was-in-mn-this-last-week/692320/7 "2014-07-04T04:50:25Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > It’s funny, that plane doesn’t look like it’s going that fast, but according to wiki, Canberra Airport has two runways, one that’s a mile long and one that’s two miles long. If that’s the short one, the plane was going, what, probably a hundred mph when it took off. > Also, IIRC it’s harder for planes to take off in hot weather since the air is less dense. It was on the long runway. The other is used mainly by light/personal aircraft. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2014, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-largest-aircraft-was-in-mn-this-last-week/692320/8 "2014-07-04T04:57:54Z")
> [@Battle\_Pope](#): > > It was on the long runway. The other is used mainly by light/personal aircraft. So, if it cleared the entire 2 mile runway in a minute, starting from 0 mph, it was going [does some math] really fast. ---
**Author:** ![GusNSpot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gusnspot/32/436_2.png) [@GusNSpot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GusNSpot)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2014, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-largest-aircraft-was-in-mn-this-last-week/692320/9 "2014-07-04T05:29:44Z")
The big one has been to Tulsa several times. Large aircraft & ships are difficult to judge the speed of because they take so long to cross in front of you. Size & time throws most way off. If you can get 2 points close to the airplane / ship & time the very front as it goes past & then compare it to one of reasonable size, you will be surprised at how fast they really are going. The giant aircraft are so heavy that they want a much speed as possible before leaving the ground & want to stay in ground effect as long as possible in case of engine failure. Speed is safety for them more so than a lighter machine in some ways. Also the mass is very much on their mind Miles & miles to stop a supper tanker? Same applies to that large of airplane and runways over 10,000 feet are not that common where they need to load up at. ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2014, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-largest-aircraft-was-in-mn-this-last-week/692320/10 "2014-07-04T05:37:03Z")
Saw it flying into Moffett Federal Airfield in Mountain View, California (Silicon Valley) once about 10 years ago now. Was probably 1000 feet in the air when I saw it while I was out for a walk, couldn’t do much but stand and gawk at the sight of it. Think it was picking up some sort of rather large military/satellite equipment from Lockheed-Martin next door in Sunnyvale, oddly. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2014, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-largest-aircraft-was-in-mn-this-last-week/692320/11 "2014-07-04T05:57:14Z")
It never makes money when it flies. It’s more economical to fly 2 an-124’s. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Mondegreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/91b2a8/32.png) [@Lord\_Mondegreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Mondegreen)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2014, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-largest-aircraft-was-in-mn-this-last-week/692320/12 "2014-07-04T08:01:49Z")
> [@Battle\_Pope](#): > > It was on the long runway. The other is used mainly by light/personal aircraft. Yeah, that was runway 17. It may have been taken before the runway was extended, especially since camera operator says he’s “running out of film”.