Antonov An-225 Mriya Relic Display by Ron Cole

Antonov An-225 Mriya Relic Display by Ron Cole 

The Antonov An-225 Mriya (dream) was the largest cargo aircraft in the world and was the only aircraft that featured six turbofan engines. The aircraft was a modern engineering marvel, able to transport up to 250 tons of cargo.

The An-225 Mriya was designed to carry twice as much as a Boeing 747 freighter. With an overall size that stretched as far as a football field from nose to tail and wingtip to wingtip, and a maximum take-off weight of up to 1.32 million pounds (about 598 tons), it dwarfed the 747 in size and lifting capability. 

The size and weight of the Antonov An-225 Mriya meant that it would need a serious amount of power to get it off the ground, so the Ukrainian engineers at Antonov fitted it with six engines each capable of pumping out a staggering 51,590 pounds of thrust.

Only one An-225 was ever built to completion. It was designed and built throughout the 1980s and took its maiden flight on 21st December 1988. A second An-225 began production in the late 1980s but, in 2009 when the aircraft had still not yet been completed, production was abandoned.

The An-225 was destroyed in February 2022. Ukrainian authorities have vowed to rebuild the plane, and Antonov CEO Sergii Bychkov has kickstarted a campaign to revive it, but no concrete plans to reproduce the aircraft exist.

Cole's Aircraft has maintained several contacts on the ground in Ukraine, before and since the invasion, all of whom have been valuable resources for World War II aircraft parts as well as shot-down Russian Federation aircraft (see our Su-25 and Ka-52 displays), but acquiring pieces of the An-225 was a 'dream' due to the fact that the largely destroyed aircraft was off limits while Antonov and the Ukrainian government sorted out what might be utilized in any reconstruction effort. But our patience paid off after over 18 months when we received one, admittedly small, piece of An-225 aluminum skin with two coats on white paint on one side, a thin coat of primer, and dull silver paint on the reverse-side. 

Each piece, carefully cut from our one sample, measures 2x1-inches in size and each piece has at least one rivet or rivet hole. 

This is certainly a rare, and possibly unique, opportunity to own and preserve an original piece of this historic and iconic aircraft!  

Each display includes one 2x1-incxh piece of white-painted exterior An-225 aluminum skin, paired with Ron Cole's new and original artwork of this amazing aircraft. 

Displays are framed and ready-to-hang, each signed & numbered. The artwork size is 11x17-inches - outside black frame size 13x19-inches.

*** To ensure the precise numbering of this very limited-edition series of displays, all original pieces of aluminum have been cut and sorted prior to release and there will be no more material outside of this series! The number of this series is strictly 108 - each signed by the artist and numbered ***

NO DISCOUNT CODES PLEASE!