Largest Aircraft In The World

There is a huge amount of hype going on about the largest plane in the world being the Airbus A380. The fact is, it is not. The West is quite keen on advertising their achievements while the Russians as always do not really create such a huge hype about things that they achieve. There is no doubt that Airbus A380 is one of the largest and one of the most complex aircraft ever built, but it looks like no one seems to notice the existence of another mighty giant, which actually is the Antonov 225 nicknamed 'Mriya' which means 'Dream'. This aircraft was built by the Antonov Design Bureau during the 80s and was originally built to carry the Soviet space shuttle 'Buran'(again another fact that the many don't know). This aircraft today is still the largest in the world. Mriya's wing span is not as expansive as that of Hughes H-4 Hercules 'Spruce Goose' built by Howard Hughes, but it is longer than Spruce Goose.
Mriya has 6 engines and the main landing gear has 32 wheels , far more than any other aircraft in the world. The aircraft was first internationally displayed at the Paris air show in 1989. At the time when it was displayed, some industrialists even started speculation about converting it into a flying 3 floored luxury hotel. This aircraft is presently used to transport large cargo that conventional aircraft cannot carry.

It is estimated that, if converted into a passenger aircraft, this aircraft can carry upto 1500 people which is almost 3 times that of what A380 can carry. The immediate question that comes up is why this aircraft was not used for this purpose. The answer could lie in the fact that given the security scenario and given the fact that very few airports in the world have the capacity to handle the traffic generated by A380 without need of any restructuring, it could be a daunting task to handle the traffic generated from Mriya if it were to be turned into a passenger aircraft!!