Antonov, the jewel in Ukraine's crown that Zelensky is keeping in Germany
Awaiting the designs of President Donald Trump, two protagonists are flying the Ukrainian flag all over the world. One is President Volodimir Zelenski, who is travelling to the world's most influential nations to meet with their leaders and plead for military aid to defend against Russian aggression.
The other figure is much less well known, despite the fact that it also travels the planet under the flag of the Central European country and is the jewel in the crown of the Kiev government. It is the four-engine Antonov An-124 Ruslan, a huge aircraft dedicated to the commercial transport of large and super-heavy loads, which can transport a 100-tonne locomotive from Canada to Ireland, an 88-tonne electric turbine from Kharkov to Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, mini submarines, yachts, helicopters or containers with large satellites inside them.
The most recent flight of the An-124 on record was to transport the French spy satellite CSO-3, which on 15 January left the French airport of Toulouse-Blagnac and in a few hours landed at Cayenne-Félix-Éboué in the capital of French Guiana, on the other side of the Atlantic, 6,800 kilometres away.
The huge and reliable Ukrainian aircraft has fulfilled its mission of taking the third new military reconnaissance aircraft of the French Armed Forces to the Kourou space centre. From there it should be launched into orbit on the second mission of the European rocket Ariane 6, whose take-off is scheduled for 25 February, a date that has not yet been officially confirmed.
It so happens that it was a giant of the skies of the same model and nationality that on 9 January took the large Spanish secure communications satellite Spainsat NG-1, owned by the company Hisdesat, from the same French airport to the military airfield of the Cape Kennedy space base in Florida (United States), where it is scheduled for launch in the early hours of 29-30 January.
Strategic transport aircraft in high demand
For several decades, the high performance in terms of volume, load capacity and range offered by the Antonov An-124 has been the preferred choice of space agencies - including the European Space Agency (ESA) - manufacturers and satellite communications operators for transporting their precious devices. Also by the energy, rail and maritime transport industries, and oil and gas extractors, whose machinery and structures tend to be bulky and very heavy.
With greater capacities than the large American military transports Boeing C-17 Globemaster III, Lockheed C-5 Galaxy and C-130 Hercules, the European Airbus A400M and also the civilian freighter Boeing 747-400 Jumbo or the new Airbus A330-743L BelugaXL, the entity that owns the Ukrainian An-124s is the state-owned company Antonov Airlines . Founded in April 1989, shortly after the country's independence from the Soviet Union, the company's official headquarters were at Hostomel airport, attached to the Antonov aircraft production plant, some 30 kilometres from Kiev.
However, almost three years ago, shortly before the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the base of operations was moved to the German airport of Leipzig/Halle, the European nerve centre for air cargo and the European headquarters of the air branch of the international logistics operator DHL. The reason for the exile in Germany is that, as was to be expected, Russian troops attacked, occupied and destroyed a large part of the company's facilities at the end of March 2022.
Bombardments by Moscow's artillery and air force destroyed the only Antonov An-225, the world's largest aircraft, and damaged an An-124 and other aircraft made by the manufacturer. Since then, the company only has five of the seven An-124s it had before the war and several aircraft with a lower cargo capacity, such as two An-12s, one An-22, one An-26 and one An-74.
Hostomel airport was recaptured by Ukrainian forces at the beginning of April that same year. But the authorities in Kiev and the company's management, in view of the evolution of the conflict and the high demand for its An-124 fleet to continue flying all over the world, agreed to safely store its five An-124s, crews and technical personnel in Germany. According to the company's CEO, Yevgeny Gavrilov, business is ‘going well and sales in 2024 have reached levels similar to those before the war’.
Russian competition for Ukrainian An-124s
Since Ukraine was invaded by Russia, Antonov Airlines and its subsidiary in Germany have continued to meet the demands of the commercial market, but with a preference for military requests. One of its main clients is the NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA) through its SALIS programme (Strategic Airlift International Solution), which involves nine nations, Spain not being one of them. The Ruslans transport combat vehicles, helicopters and weaponry and logistical equipment to Ukraine and between the member countries of the Alliance.
But Antonov Airlines has a direct rival: the Russian state company Volga-Dnepr Airlines, founded in August 1990, which has just over half a dozen An-124s. However, the sanctions imposed on the Kremlin by the United States, the European Union and the nations that defend Kiev's cause have marginalised the services of the Russian company. The consequence is that the Ukrainian airline enjoys a clear competitive advantage in the sector of large cargo transport.
Conceived as a strategic military transport aircraft and with its first flight in December 1982, the An-124 is the latest aircraft to emerge from the mind of the Russian engineer Oleg Antonov (1906-1984), who throughout his life dedicated to aviation conceived 22 models of aeroplanes and 52 of gliders. During the terms of office of Nikita Khrushchev (1953-1964) and Leonid Brezhnev (1964-1982), Oleg Antonov was the director of the design office that bears his name, which was responsible for the manufacture of the main transport aircraft of the Soviet armed forces and the airline Aeroflot.
In the so-called 150 configuration that saw the light in 2008, the An-124 is the global market leader in the heavyweight category of specialised air transport. With cargo dimensions of 36.5 x 6.4 x 4.4 metres, a pressurised compartment with a volume of 1,028 m³ and capable of accommodating equipment weighing close to 150 tonnes, it has a full-load flight range of 4,500 kilometres with its four Ivchenko-Progress D-18T jet engines, which give it a full-load cruising speed of 750 km/h.
It has two cargo doors, one at the front and one at the rear of the plane, both equipped with extendable ramps, four sets of electric pulleys and two electric winches for traction, which gives its seven crew members ample flexibility for stowage. Most of Antonov Airlines' An-124s were manufactured in the 1990s and require a lot of maintenance and a large number of spare parts. But they are in high demand and continue to fly all over the world in the blue and yellow colours of Ukraine.