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World’s Biggest Cargo Plane To Ship Chinese PPE to Quebec - Mirabel Airport

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The cargo specialists arranging a massive shipment of personal protective equipment from China for the Quebec government have turned to the world's biggest aircraft to carry the load. The Soviet-era Antonov AN-225 is scheduled to carry what will be the largest single delivery of personal protective equipment (PPE) to Canada later this week to Montreal's Mirabel Airport. The most recent flight plan calls for the huge aircraft to land on Thursday night. (www.fliegerfaust.com) More...

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DAL521
DAL521 3
That plane is really an engineering marvel.
linbb
linbb -4
Well kind of in a way they used western equipment for there avionics in it. And if you look at the engines it takes six little ones to get it in the air.
djames225
djames225 2
They had to use "western" avionics in it LIKE ALL aircraft if they wish to fly into the US. And they use 6 52,000 thrust pound engines to "balance the load" for take off and landing. 2 engines are throttled back later.
jbsimms
James Simms 3
Always hard to believe it, the A380, the C-5 Galaxy, & C-17 fly
RichardChartrand
The same airplane (An-225) has landed in Mirabel this morning at 7h30 EDT. It carries PPE from China where the flight originated. Then it stopped in Japan then on to Anchorage AK before arriving at YMX. Normally that shipment is sent by ship but it was urgent. Fantastic to see that airplane twice in less than a month.
ghstark
Greg S 1
I've been paying attention to the flights of the AN-225 recently. They seem to make a lot of flights to Almaty, Kazakhstan and Tianjin, China. I'm not sure what is special about those cities.
djames225
djames225 1
Tianjin China is where they are picking up the cargo. I don't know why most other cargo operations are fixated on bigger China airports. Watching 1 of the flights in and did not look busy at all.
If you watch their flight path, they drop south away from Russian airspace and use Almaty as a fuel stopover.
RichardChartrand
djames225: I just read the article on fliegerfaust.com website. Quote: The Tianjin airport is the only one where the AN-225 is allowed to land in China. That must be the reason why the company is picking up the cargo in that airport
djames225
djames225 1
If I am not mistaken, it is also allowed at Shenzhen Bao'an. But as I stated, I wonder why other cargo charters for PPE etc are not flying into Tianjin.
Dmytro Antonov (D Antonov) has a Youtube channe with flights of this big bird, smaller big bird AN1-24 and the baby bird AN-74
linbb
linbb -3
China to pick up PPE stuff for the virus like others have done.
wopri
The latest info says it will be late, arriving at Mirabel early afternoon on Friday. There will be a refuelling stop at Anchorage.
djames225
djames225 1
It literally just left Tianjin 2 minutes ago 10:53PM CDT
wopri
It’s now scheduled to arrive in Mirabel at 20:55 EDT.
djames225
djames225 2
They have adjusted it, Wolfgang. Now looks to be 20:41 EDT.
RichardChartrand
Update: The flight is scheduled to land at 20:26 EDT Beautiful day right now north of Montreal
wopri
Here a video (in French) of the arrival at Mirabel:

https://www.lapresse.ca/covid-19/202005/02/01-5271829-operation-reussie-pour-le-plus-gros-avion-du-monde.php
djames225
djames225 2
And to think that crew hand bombed those loads in and out, multiple times. Non of any of those shipments were on skids, just a protective floor cover. Thks for the posts Wolfgang.
RichardChartrand
The people last night that went to the airport to watch the AN-225 were lucky because the airplane was ahead of his schedule by 25 minutes. So the landing took place just before dark. Even if Mirabel is mostly a cargo airport they were hundreds of people who came to see that big bird.
djames225
djames225 1
They took off this morning for ANC, but due to ANC being closed and diverting flights, landed in Fairbanks. ANC closed due to a bomb threat diverted cargo flight bound for Asia.
https://flightaware.com/live/flight/ADB381F/history/20200502/0900Z/CYMX/PAFA
wopri
Here’s a video of the departure from Mirabel:

https://youtu.be/1LdooTc3KyY
djames225
djames225 2
Landing, taxi, partial offload, lighting up the stink bombs early in the am, taxi and departure
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGbtUHEYJ3M
SueLockwood
Sue Lockwood -2
All I can think about is whether all that PPE is free considering the origin of this mess we’re currently in.
bidrec
Richard Haas 3
At least some of it is donated by Jack Ma and Alibaba's charitable arm according to the Financial Times which does not specifically mention the AN-225.

It goes on to say that Alibaba is focusing on countries where Amazon is not dominant.
mikeenderle
mikeenderle -1
It should be free given that supplies were ~95% defective in Italy. Very generous of the CCP. Using the An225 has just been a Party propaganda campaign so the supplies don't actually have to work.
djames225
djames225 1
CCP has nada to do with what company the supplies were ordered from. Same goes for everything, you can buy cheap and sometimes get junk, or you can pay a bit more and most times get great.
wopri
The Québec government charged the AN-255 with the transportation of PPE, nothing to do with the Chinese.

djames225
djames225 2
Actually Wolfgang, Quebec Government contracted Nolinor to make it happen, who did so via Momentum Solutions. Like Vince said, cheaper to ship 1 shot than multiple shots, and 1200 cubic meters is a lot of boxes.

[This comment has been downvoted. Show anyway.]

jbqwik
jbqwik 8
@Robertson: Try not to be a self-aggrandizing jerk - The guy was just making a common expression, like 'Oh My Gosh!'

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