The solution was a grotesque masterpiece of radial symmetry.
In the pantheon of aviation engineering, the Antonov Design Bureau is synonymous with "big." The An-225 Mriya —a six-engine, 32-wheel leviathan that carried the Soviet Buran space shuttle—remains the heaviest aircraft ever built. But in the dusty archives of unbuilt concepts, whispered about in the hangars of Hostomel Airport, lies a legend that makes the An-225 look like a crop duster: the Antonov An-990 . antonov an-990
The taxi test was a disaster. The weight of the central fuselage caused the asphalt of the taxiway to liquefy. The first and only "hop"—a 20-foot rise off the runway at 180 knots—reportedly shattered every window in the control tower and stripped the roof off a nearby maintenance shed due to the exhaust wake of the 14 engines. The aircraft landed immediately, its rear triple-fuselage joint cracked. The solution was a grotesque masterpiece of radial symmetry