Big plane, big work

"Just Jeepin'" (macintux) 04/30/2020 at 16:25 • Filed to: Planelopnik, Spacelopnik, coronavirus

3

23

Interesting article with lots of cool photos of the Soviet-era An-225, designed to fly their shuttle around, now on COVID duty.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

On April 13, 2020, the old Soviet aircraft delivered 100 tons of medical supplies to Warsaw, Poland, becoming the largest air cargo transport by volume in history, according to the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . 

ItalianJobR53 - now with added 'MERICA and unreliability > Just Jeepin' 04/30/2020 at 16:29

3

Reminds me of Moonraker (james bond movie)

MonkeePuzzle > Just Jeepin' 04/30/2020 at 16:30

5

that old chesnut about the americans wasting money on a space pen when the russians just use a pencil
...well russia, the americans just used a modified existing plane, so checkmate

(but also teh pencil story is bunk)

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > Just Jeepin' 04/30/2020 at 16:35

0

One of the space shuttles is still lying abandoned in a hanger somewhere. I wonder if the mounting gear for the plane still exists too?

Jim Spanfeller > Just Jeepin' 04/30/2020 at 16:45

1

Some airplanes , like those of the Boeing , or S pace S huttle employ an unusual mating method. Because individuals are locally rare, encounters are also very rare. Therefore, finding a mate is problematic. When scientists first started capturing airplanes , they noticed that all of the specimens were female. These individuals were 76.3 m in size and almost all of them had what appeared to be parasites attached to them. It turned out that these “parasites” were highly reduced male ceratioids. This indicates some taxa of airplane use a polyandrous mating system.

Certain ceratioids rely on parabiotic reproduction. Free-living males and unparasitized females in these species never have fully developed gonads. Thus, males never mature without attaching to a female, and die if they cannot find one. At birth, male ceratioids are already equipped with extremely well-developed olfactory organs that detect scents in the water. Males of some species also develop large, highly specialized eyes that may aid in identifying mates in dark environments. The male ceratioid lives solely to find and mate with a female. They are significantly smaller than a female airplane , and may have trouble finding food in the air . Furthermore, growth of the alimentary canals of some males becomes stunted, preventing them from feeding. Some taxa have jaws that are never suitable or effective for prey capture. These features mean the male must quickly find a female airplane to prevent death. The sensitive olfactory organs help the male to detect the pheromones that signal the proximity of a female airplane .

The methods airplanes use to locate mates vary. Some species have minute eyes that are unfit for identifying females, while others have underdeveloped nostrils, making them unlikely to effectively find females by scent. When a male finds a female, he bites into her skin, and releases an enzyme that digests the skin of his mouth and her body, fusing the pair down to the blood-vessel level. The male becomes dependent on the female host for survival by receiving nutrients via their shared circulatory system, and provides sperm to the female in return. After fusing, males increase in volume and become much larger relative to free-living males of the species. They live and remain reproductively functional as long as the female lives, and can take part in multiple spawnings.

This extreme sexual dimorphism ensures that when the female is ready to spawn, she has a mate immediately available. Multiple males can be incorporated into a single individual female with up to eight males in some species, though some taxa appear to have a “one male per female” rule.

ranwhenparked > Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available 04/30/2020 at 16:48

1

That’s at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the second one built and the most complete of any surviving. 

facw > Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available 04/30/2020 at 16:48

2

There were two more or less complete ones, plus a bunch of test articles:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buran_programme#List_of_vehicles

The one that flew to space was crushed in a hangar collapse:

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > facw 04/30/2020 at 17:06

0

Thank you. Is it possible the one left intact flew on the transporter plane? Or was that one just nearly complete but still under construction when the Soviet Union collapsed?

user314 > Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available 04/30/2020 at 17:08

1

The Buran (1.01) was destroyed in 2002 when, ironically enough, a snowstorm collapsed the hangar it was in. Orbiter 1.02 , known variously as Buria or Ptichka , was in the same hangar, but wasn’t damaged, and was moved to another building where it remains today. It’s possible the rigging is also stored with the other equipment and test articles, if it hasn’t been sold or recycled.   

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > user314 04/30/2020 at 17:14

3

I see the irony.

Buran. . . meaning “Snowstorm” or “Blizzard”

Crazy that this one relic survived. Knowing the complicated feelings towards the old Soviet Bloc by the people who inhabited it, especially in a country as diverse as Kazakhstan, I’m not surprised it was begrudgingly preserved and then locked away.

BTW this book is fantastic:

facw > Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available 04/30/2020 at 17:16

1

It wasn’t quite complete, but it seems possible it was done enough to be transported. The question (which a quick google couldn’t provide me an answer for) is whether they were built at Baikonur or transported there. If it was built there, I don’t think it’s ever gone anywhere else, but if it was built elsewhere, it would presumably have been flown to Baikonur.

ranwhenparked > Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available 04/30/2020 at 17:25

1

T he whole Baikonur complex has been under Russian control since the collapse of the USSR, under long term l ease from the Kazakh government.

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > facw 04/30/2020 at 17:28

1

Yes, it seems the history of these is shrouded in mystery for as long as it was behind the iron curtain. I would imagine at least parts of it would have had to be completed somewhere else, but perhaps the whole ship never flew, even on the back of another plane.

user314 > facw 04/30/2020 at 17:39

2

AFIAK, the Burans were all built in the Tushino Machine-Building Plant outside Moscow, then 1.01 and 1.02 were flown to Baikonur. 2.01 was moved by barge to Zhukovsky Airport, where it remains.

The history for OK-GLI , the flight test article fitted with jet engines, is murkier, but it also appears to have been built in Moscow, then tested at Zhukovsky. I can’t find anything that says it was ever transported on the An-225.

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > Jim Spanfeller 04/30/2020 at 17:40

0

Ewww that’s dirty. I don’t want to know how my airline breeds its planes.

4kc > Just Jeepin' 04/30/2020 at 17:56

1

Shit, didn’t realize the plane in the movie “2012" was based on an actual craft.

Cé hé sin > Just Jeepin' 04/30/2020 at 19:06

0

The An 225 has wheels and tyres of an unusual size so has to carry spares and a jack around.

Just Jeepin' > Cé hé sin 04/30/2020 at 19:25

0

I suppose that isn’t as typical as I’d think; I’m used to always having a spare and a jack.

Hooker > Just Jeepin' 04/30/2020 at 20:30

0

I built this. Once. In Lego’s. True story. 

Just Jeepin' > Hooker 04/30/2020 at 20:33

1

Pics or it didn’t happen.

Hooker > Just Jeepin' 04/30/2020 at 21:00

0

Oh, dude, I gave that set to my niece years ago. It’s long gone. Probably part of a Barbie dream house or something. 

user314 > Jim Spanfeller 05/01/2020 at 09:55

0

Show of hands, was the voice in your head reading this David Attenborough, Mike Rowe, or Morgan Freeman?

user314 > Just Jeepin' 05/01/2020 at 10:00

0

Mother of God!

Just Jeepin' > user314 05/01/2020 at 10:14

1

Hard to believe something that heavy can actually fly on battery power.