Antonov An-124 Ruslan (UR-82072)

AWESOME! I unfortunatly didn't wake up in time to see this :(

Thanks Owen. Thankfully she left an hour or so late.

I love this shot!

Nice shot John........

Worth getting up early in the morning for.

Does the negative dihedral flatten out or turn positive at cruising speed?

As a controller I used to work these out of IAH often. They don't climb and they don't go fast, LOL. 120 miles north of the airport they'd still be climbing out of FL190 at a groundspeed of about 380...

In the late 90s we used those An-124s to ship comms satellites out of Moffett field to their launch sites at Baikonur, Kourou, etc. The satellite weighed less than 8000lbs unfueled but they and their EC shipping container were bulky. But, they fit into the big Antonov with room to spare. The flight crew were British pilots but the load crew was about 15 or so Russians. Part of the deal was we would supply them with a full-sized van and they would go up 101 to the Costco in Mountain View and load up with cigarettes, Levis and all kinds of stuff to take back to Russia and sell on the black market. Our only concern is they tied all that stuff down well so it wouldn't go flying around in the load bay. We outfitted the vehicle environmental shipping container with recording shock sensors and found the ride on those big boys was glassy smooth from take-off, through flight, to landing with the taxiing sometimes the roughest part. The accountants didn't like the $300k+ shipping cost and they eventually shipped them overland with great risk and lots of vibe. I miss seeing and working with them as it was always a treat to see your cargo in the load bay.

I'm trying to get to Toronto Pearson Airport to capture the one the Canadian Gov't seized before they take it apart or worse. Very impressive airplane.

Thanks Ken & everyone else!