Aviation Geeks unite?! Anybody else care about planes here?

^^ Have you any idea how extremely difficult and above all costly that would be?
It's not only about the aircraft itself, you would need an entire new factory for that thing, the little brother, the AN 124 has been out of production since 2004, there's no chance that they kept all the original tooling in place and don't mention the extra stuff needed for the AN-225 which was based on it but still an entire different beast.

 

Oh I know but I always thought there was one more of that model around.... Such a shame

 

The other model was in a incomplete state, sitting in the Ukrainian BoneYard, slowly rusting away.

 

That's sad to know. It is a shame.

 

What a beautiful, historically important aircraft. Its destruction is far down the list of terrible things from this war, but it's sad to lose such an amazing craft.

 

Imagine fitting one of those out as a mobile home.

Some really weird Soviet Aircraft / ground effect vehicles mixed in with some other weird stuff.

 

The U.S have recovered the wreck of the F-35 that wound up in the South China Sea a few weeks back.

Had to use a ROV to retrieve it from 2 miles down.

Navy recovers stealth F-35 from South China Sea (msn.com)

 

Finally, that makes me feel ALOT better.

 

The Turkish Bayraktar is working so well in Ukraine that I am beginning to wonder if these and other new cheap attack drones might spell the beginning of the end of the light attack/COIN type planes (Super Tucano, PC-21, Texan II, etc). A Bayraktar costs a third of what a Super Tucano costs, and if lost, doesn't include loss of pilot.

 

The Light Attack / COIN type aircraft will have it's niche.

There are certain things that each platform is good at, using them for the right job is what makes it key.

 

Well you wouldn't want China to recover that plane now would you? They'd probably make a fully working copy from that wreck haha......

 

"smacks head" that's the plane at the start of Saints Row 3

 

More:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_OOS

China has acquired the rights and technical data to the An-225 Mriya airlifter from Ukraine’s Antonov State Company and plans to restart production of the world’s largest aircraft. Chinese state media reported that the agreement with China Airspace Industry Group will see the transfer of the technical drawings and property rights for the An-225 and its Progress D-18T turbofan engines currently held by Antonov.

https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-...v-sells-dormant-225-heavylifter-program-china



The sad story of sky king
https://up-ship.com/blog/?p=49942

In more pleasant news:
https://techxplore.com/news/2022-03-insights-aerodynamics-scientists-paper-airplanes.html
A series of experiments using paper airplanes reveals new aerodynamic effects, a team of scientists has discovered.

New insulation
https://phys.org/news/2022-07-ceramic-aerogel-nanocrystals-embedded-matrix.html
The researchers tested the material by using it to insulate an airplane fuel tube and applying a butane blowtorch for five minutes. They found that using a generic polyimide barrier allowed the temperatures in the tube to reach 267° C, while a conventional aerogel kept the temperature to 159° C and the new gel maintained it at just 33° C.

Rugged fuel cells
https://techxplore.com/news/2022-07-world-durable-hydrogen-fuel-cell.html

 

=(

The Ukrainians won't be remaking the Antonov 225 now

=(

And China / CCP gains more tech.

 

"Well, boys, we got three engines out, we got more holes in us than a horse trader's mule,
the radio is gone and we're leaking fuel and if we was flying any lower why we'd need sleigh bells on this thing...
but we got one little budge on them Rooskies. At this height why they might harpoon us but they dang sure ain't gonna spot us on no radar screen!"
Major T. J. "King" Kong

 

I think the Ukrainians are having a bit more problems than that, at the moment. China getting plans to a 40 something year old plane that had one major use is pretty low on their existential threat list.

 

True

Now there is more impetus to make this Hypothetical Design.

 

right..
nevermind

 

It would be nice.