Drone films world’s largest plane, an Antonov An-225, take-off

Ask any aircraft expert about the Antonov An-225 and chances are you'll get an answer laced with the necessary superlatives. The An-225 (nickname: Mrija, Ukrainian for “dream”) is the largest aircraft ever built, in terms of maximum weight. A drone recently captured spectacular images of the world's largest plane taking off.

Drone films world's largest plane take-off

The Antonov An-225 was designed in Ukraine. The cargo plane has a wingspan of more than 88 meters and has a maximum take-off weight of 600 tons, almost twice that of a Boeing 747. The aircraft was put into service in 1988. Originally, the aircraft was used to support the space program of the then Soviet Union. Today, the aircraft is used to transport ‘oversized' objects.

Recently, the giant transport plane made a flight to Leipzig. The take-off in Kyiv was filmed by a drone. The images are remarkable, given the apparently very short distance between the An-225 and the drone.

Coordinated with pilot and ATC

It is not the first time that a drone filmed a plane flying by: in Israel drone images were already taken of passing planes, but that was done illegally at the time, much to the anger of the drone community. Fortunately, in this case, the drone flight was well coordinated with air traffic control and the pilot of the aircraft.

If you can't get enough of the An-225, take a look at these FPV images that were made with a racing drone in 2016 of the impressive aircraft.

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This article first appeared on Dronewatch and is written by Wiebe de Jager who is also a DroneXL contributor.