Antonov-124 visits Pittsburgh International Airport

Tail Number
UR- 82702
Since my Ukrainian Russian vocabulary is limited, I'll limit to pictures and little words... sorry.

Easter Sunday 2019 an Antonov 124 landed at Pittsburgh International Airport to deliver a very large crane for the construction of a Cracker plant 15 miles away in beaver county.
en.m.wikipedia.org...

The Pennsylvania Shell ethylene cracker plant is a chemical plant under construction in Potter Township, Pennsylvania near Pittsburgh that will be owned and operated by Shell Oil Company, the American subsidiary of supermajor oil company Royal Dutch Shell.[1] The plant is being constructed near the interchange of Interstate 376 and Pennsylvania Route 18, expecting to open in the early 2020s.[

Now that we know we're not dealing with Keebler Elves we can continue.

While visiting my father on Easter sunday... a rather large cargo plane made by the

Antonov Airlines is a Ukrainian cargo airline, a division of the Antonov aviation company. It operates international charter services in the world of oversized cargo market. Its main base is Gostomel Airport near Kiev.[1] The company owns the only completed Antonov An-225, the world's largest operational cargo aircraft.

but this is a 124.. looks like a C-5 Galaxy but quieter engines. I know this because one flew over last summer. I was at Pittsburgh International Airport when it left at 2:30 am 8 days later this Easter.

Let's take a very brief tour.
How close did I get...
Pretty Damn close..
She's out on the 911th air wing ramp.


THE landing gears are LET ME APPLY ATS BOLD..THE FREAKING TIRES AND ASSEMBLY IS HUUUUUGE!!!
I'm 6 foot and these are big.


Ok..
Let's enter or go in from the behind, you'll see a set of stairs from the back entery. It leads to the rear crew quarters and it's also light blue with curtains.


Let's look at the cockpit..( No Smoking)


The one pilot who drew straws and claims is the only gentleman on board whom speaks English... broken but pretty good it seemed..

Onward..

We got under the .... well we thought this was the Black Box.
fixated by my count... 15 story's under the cockpit..

I'll throw some of these up in the General Aviation thread

Double..😥😆😆
Go Airplane Go!👍🍻🤗

We've had one come in a few times to one of the local airports. Always a treat to see it sitting out all by itself dwarfing everything else around it. Maybe I should ask around and try to get a tour one day. Maybe someone I know, knows someone who knows someone.

Had a couple C-17's out on the Guard ramp elsewhere last week. Not "rare", but certainly not an every day experience.

a reply to: RadioRobert

Dwarfs.. that's a perfect term to use. There was a C-17 and a C-130 out there right then.
Very long time ago an Antonov-225 came through here. I have pics on a ScanDisk here somewhere, it still blows my My mind away. Damn thing had an Apex added to the fuselage.

Awesome pics!!

I've seen a lot of the AN-124's up close like that, but never been inside one! That's cool! Did you get any pics of the crew areas upstairs? I'd love to see those.

They show up here pretty regularly, usually hauling stuff in for the oil & gas industry and hauling stuff out for Lockheed Martin (rocket motors and so forth). The Lockheed Martin stuff usually isn't all that huge, but usually really long. The oil & gas stuff on the other hand is flat-out gigantic! Some of the things I've seen that aircraft disgorge must have been designed around being able to fit inside the hold because it fills up every square inch it seems. When you see what it was carrying sitting on the ramp it seems almost as big as the aircraft itself. Makes you wonder how it ever fit inside. Plus, the cranes and heavy-haul trucks they bring in to carry it off are pretty impressive as well. The whole operations requires runway shutdowns due to obstacle free zone encroachment.

Always a treat to see the AN-124's.

Great post. S&F.

a reply to: Bigburgh

Great post. Lucky you. Love the pics. Bet you enjoyed that tour.

One Big Bird.

Kind regards,

Bally

sweet plane. Iv seen one of these at Santa Maria airport in the Azures. Sat on the tarmac next to us. Beautiful and huge.

Yoi and double yoi, that’s a monster

The big question I have, did y’inz see how many Primanti Sammiches could that beast take back to the Russians, an at?

a reply to: SocratesJohnson


You seem to be channeling Myron Cope and the South Side natives. Do you own a Terrible Towel?

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

The crew quarters were accessible but out of respect I did not take pictures. Best I can describe is that there were places to lay down, but not very wide and in a bunk bed style mounted to the wall of the fuselage. Lots of drapes too.
They had seats arranged like an airliner, and mess hall.

a reply to: Bigburgh

Just Wow! Fantastic pics! That's some kind of flying beast :-)

Cheers - Dave

a reply to: bobs_uruncle

Thank you.


***Attention everybody***
I put the wrong tail number in the OP. Not 82702
This is it..


Thank you

a reply to: pteridine

‘A’ terrible towel, no...multiple terrible towels, yeah

Terrible towels are like Lay’s potato chips, you cannot just have one

All the profits of the towels go to an autistic home. I actually have an old newspaper article talking about Cope and the towel. It says cope son has something called autism, which is a rare disease...

a reply to: SocratesJohnson

Copes son was at Allegheny Valley School and Home. The proceeds go to the home and school.
And...


N @

And for the sake of conversation...
You could fit 6 Primantis stores inside the AN-124

Might be the same one, but an An-124 is in Phoenix.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
Might be the same one, but an An-124 is in Phoenix.

Just looked this one is different.

Landed 6 hours ago from Anchorage Alaska

The one that left here flew to HHN in Frankfurt and appears to still be there.

Edit:
Ohh.. there's a B-17 over GoodYear Airport

You in Phoenix now?

a reply to: Bigburgh

I didn't bother looking, just got word that she's parked at Phoenix. Thanks for checking.

i,av seen these flying in and out of stansted, uk. it hurts the brain watching something so big flying so slow

a reply to: Bigburgh

Yeah, for another day or two. There's a B-24 based here, and currently an AN-12 at Tucson.

a reply to: Bigburgh

Sentimental Journey is homed at FFZ by the evil people who care for her and fly her.