Originally Posted by D.H.Love
Had the privelage of being able to walk around the AN224 Mira at EMA in December.
Now that is a real beast. We also had three AN124 and the 224 all sitting on the ramp at one time. A site to behold.
Best part was that 90 tonnes worth of boxes were unloaded by hand. The whole aircraft had been stacked form front to back. Same with the AN124's. Quite pathetic to watch around twelve loaders nibbling away at it for 2 days.
I beg to differ on what you've said above.
Firstly, the aircraft in an Antonov 225, not a 224.
Secondly, the loaders were not loading the aircraft with 90 tonnes of loose boxes by hand for 2 days. A few loose boxes were put on board by local kids as a P.R. excercise and the rest were shrinkwrapped and put on pallets which were loaded by forklifts. And the loading did not take 2 days - They started around midday-1pm, had finished by the evening and the aircraft departed 6-7am the next morning on schedule. The aircraft was only used to take the small 90 tonne load because it was at EMA having flown a large consignment into the UK from Asia - otherwise the AN-124 is normally used to take the load each year.