For 34 years, the famous Antonov An-225 Mriya was the largest aircraft in the skies. Only one example was ever completed, and that was destroyed in Ukraine in 2022. Since then, its smaller relative, the Antonov An-124 Ruslan military transport, has been the largest military aircraft in service. The Ruslan is larger than the US Air Force C-5M Super Galaxy.

The largest aircraft in the world today is the Airbus A380 by max takeoff weight, while the Scaled Composites 351 Stratolaunch is the biggest by wingspan. The An-124 has now been out of production for more than 20 years, but it has reclaimed the accolade of the world's largest cargo and military aircraft, although the Boeing 747-8F is a cargo challenger. If the Airbus A380 were to be converted into a freighter, then the An-124 would lose its title as the world's largest freighter, but it would still be the world's largest military aircraft.

The USSR's Antonov An-124

From 1982 to 1988 and from 2022 to present, the Antonov An-124 airlifter has been the largest transport aircraft flying. The one-off Antonov An-225 was also built. The An-225 was an enlarged derivative of the An-124, being built to carry the Soviet Buran spacecraft. Antonov is a company based in Ukraine and was based in the Ukrainian SSR during the Soviet period. The aircraft was designed in the 1980s in the Soviet Union and was the result of a project called Izdeliye 400 launched in 1971.

While the 1980s are seen as a period of stagnation for the USSR, the country was still able to produce some of the world's largest aircraft. Many of the military transport, bombers, and fighters in service in post-Soviet and Soviet-aligned countries today were built in the Soviet Union.

An-124s had two final assembly lines, one in Ulyanovsk in Russia and the other was the Kyiv Aviation Plant in Ukraine. Assembly began in 1979 with the aircraft's maiden flight taking place on December 24, 1982. Production of the aircraft continued after the collapse of the USSR, but ended in 2004. There were plans to restart production in 2008, but this came to nothing as relations between Russia and Ukraine deteriorated.

The World's Biggest Cargo Plane

It should be noted that there are multiple ways to measure what counts as the world's biggest airplane. One could rank aircraft by wingspan, length, max takeoff weight, and max payload. When measured by wingspan, Scaled Composites 351 Stratolaunch (ROC) is the world's biggest with a wingspan of 385 feet. When measured by length, the Lockheed C-5 Galaxy is the longest at 247 feet 1 inch.

However, the most common way to measure the size of an aircraft is by its maximum takeoff weight. The An-124 has a max takeoff weight of 886,258 lbs or 402,000 kilograms, which is ahead of the Super Galaxy's 840,000 lbs (381,018 kg). A few KC-10 Extenders remain in service, and these have a max takeoff weight of 590,000 lbs (267,619 kg). The Boeing 747-8F has a higher MTOW than the An-124 (990,000 lbs). However, the An-124-100M-150 variant edges it out by payload as it can carry around 330,700 lbs compared to the Boeing 747-8F's 295,400 lbs.

With the destruction of the An-225, the largest aircraft by MTOW is the Airbus A380. The Superjumbo comes with an MTOW of 1,268,000 lbs (575,000 kg), making it by far the heaviest aircraft today. The aircraft's empty weight is 628,000 lbs, and its fuel capacity is 559,937 lbs. The A380 is also longer and has a wider wingspan than the An-124. However, it is a one-trick pony and has not been developed into the planned freighter version, which had been planned to have a max payload of 330,700 lbs like the An-124-100M-150.

An-124 Ruslan Operators

A total of 57 An-124 Ruslans were built, of which less than half remain in use today. Ukraine and Russia are the main countries that continue to operate the aircraft. According to Planestoppers.net, Russia, Ukraine, Libya, and the UAE all operate these aircraft, although Libya and the UAE have only one example each, and both airframes are inactive.

Russia is the largest operator with 13 active An-124s, while Ukraine currently has three active airframes. In Russia, the An-124s are mostly operated by the Russian Air Force (the 224th Flight Unit is also part of the Russian Air Force). The other Russian operator is Volga-Dnepr Airlines, which is an all-cargo airline providing air charter services. All seven Volga-Dnepr Ruslans are listed as parked, although it is listed as having five operational Ilyushin Il-76s. The Il-76 is another Soviet-era military strategic transport aircraft and is still in production in Russia.

The final operator is Ukraine's cargo airline, Antonov Airlines. It operates seven An-124s, including three An-124-100s and four An-124-100Ms. Antonov Airlines' main base was at Hostomel Airport near Kyiv, but it has relocated its remaining aircraft to Leipzig/Halle Airport in Germany since 2022.

Volga-Dnepr's Troubled An-124s

According to a ch-aviation report in November 2024, of Volga-Dnepr Airlines' nine An-124s, two are active. Ch-aviation lists three of these as being stored at Leipzig/Halle in Germany, one in Ulyanovsk Vostochny in Russia, one at Dubai World Central in the UAE, one at Toronto Pearson in Canada, and one at Moscow Sheremetyevo in Russia. This means that only two are in Russia.

The four An-124s in Canada and Germany have been seized following sanctions placed on Russia in 2022. There is continuing debate about what to do with them, with calls for them to be handed over to Ukraine. According to some reports (including Ukrainska Pravda), Canada has begun legal proceedings to transfer the aircraft at Toronto Pearson to Ukraine.

The An-124, stuck in Canada, flew there soon after the outbreak of the war, carrying Chinese-made COVID-19 rapid tests to Canada. Two of the three An-124s in Germany landed in Leipzig just before the outbreak of hostilities. The third aircraft at Leipzig has been sitting there without engines for some time. Hoping to get its planes back from Germany, Volga-Dnepr Airlines continues to pay for the parking fees in Leipzig, while it has accrued a large parking bill for its aircraft at Toronto, which, it seems, will not be returned.

Non-Russian An-124s

The Antonov An-124s found outside of Russia tend to be newer than those found in the Russian Air Force. Many are post-independence Ukrainian-made Ruslans as opposed to their Soviet-era counterparts in Russia. The single An-124 (registered UR-ZYD) with the UAE's Maximus Air Cargo first flew in 2003 and is now 21.6 years old. The Libyan Air Cargo's example (registered 5A-DKL) first flew in 1992 and is now 33 years old, meaning it is also a post-Soviet aircraft. Libyan Air Cargo had a second example, but that was destroyed on the ground in 2019.

Ukraine's Antonov Airlines' examples were mostly delivered during the 1990s. For example, one (registered UR-82073) was first delivered in 1994. Around half of Antonov Airlines' aircraft were delivered during the Soviet period. Volga-Dnepr's examples also date from the 1990s and early 2000s, while all the airframes in Russian Air Force service were first built in the 1980s, although some have since been upgraded.

Status of Antonov An-124s:

• 1: Destroyed
• 4: Written off
• 14: Parked
• 16: Active
• 19: Stored

Of all the An-124s produced, Planespotters.net lists one as destroyed, two as derelict, four as written off, 14 as parked, 16 as active, and 19 as stored. It is unclear how many of the 33 aircraft marked as parked or stored are still flightworthy and will ever fly again. After all, one of the aircraft listed as stored is the same aircraft that's been sitting at Leipzig Airport for years without engines. It also appears unlikely that any more will ever be produced.

World's Second-Biggest Airplane

For now, the An-124 is the world's second-largest aircraft, after the Airbus A380, and is rivaled by the Boeing 747-8F. However, large aircraft have long since fallen out of favor around the world. The largest military transports, the An-225, An-124, Lockheed C-5 Galaxy, and C-17 Globemaster III are all out of production; production of the C-17 ended in 2015. Even strategic bombers are much smaller, with the B-21 Raider being much smaller than its B-1 Lancer, B-2 Spirit, and B-52 Stratofortress bomber predecessors.

Aircraft are also getting smaller in the commercial sector for both cargo and passenger transportation. No commercial quad-engined aircraft is in production today with the termination of the Boeing 747, Airbus A340, and A380. The Boeing 777X is set to become the world's largest in-production passenger and cargo aircraft when it launches (expected in 2026).

Instead of building aircraft capable of carrying heavier payloads, Boeing and Airbus have adapted existing aircraft into the Airbus BelugaXL and Boeing Dreamlifter to carry outsized loads. It is possible the An-124 Ruslan will not remain the world's largest cargo aircraft in the future, as Ukraine has promised to complete the production of the unfinished An-225, but that remains to be seen.