Antonov An-124-100 has landed in Norway for carrying equipment from the military exercise Cold Response in March this year. 16,000 soldiers from 16 nations came to Northern Norway to take part in the exercise Cold Response 2014. In addition to Norway, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, France, Ireland, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and USA joined in the military exercise.
The Russian airplane will take the equipments of the exercise to Germany.
The giant airplane is a strategic airlift jet. It was designed by the Antonov design bureau in the Ukrainian SSR, then part of the Soviet Union. The An-124 is the world’s highest gross weight production cargo aeroplane and second heaviest operating cargo aircraft.
During development it was known as Izdeliye 400 (Product #400) in house, and An-40 in the West. First flown in 1982, civil certification was issued on 30 December 1992. In July 2013, 26 An-124s were in commercial service with 10 on order.
The An-124 has been used to carry yachts, aircraft fuselages, a 109 tonne locomotive from Canada to Ireland in September 2001, and a variety of other oversized cargoes. The aircraft is able to kneel to allow easier front loading; and has an onboard overhead crane capable of lifting up to 30 tonnes of cargo, and items up to 120 tonnes can be winched on board.
Antonov swallows a passanger aircraft.
Up to 150 tonnes (150 long tons; 170 short tons) of cargo can be carried in a military An-124; it can also carry 88 passengers in an upper deck behind the wing centre section. The cargo compartment of An-124 is 36×6.4×4.4 m (118×21×14 ft), ca. 20% larger than the main cargo compartment of C-5 Galaxy, which is 36.91×5.79×4.09 m (121.1×19.0×13.4 ft). Due to limited pressurisation in the main cargo compartment (24.6 kPa, 3.57 psi),[18] it seldom carries paratroopers, according to antonov.com.