Ukraine's Antonov Design Bureau (Gostomel) is set to resume production of the An-225 "Mriya" ultraheavy transport aircraft after it signed a joint-cooperation agreement with the Aerospace Industry Corporation of China (AICC) earlier this week.
Under the first phase of the agreement, the partially finished hull of the second aircraft of the type will be completed ahead of its handover to the AICC. Under the second phase, full-scale production of the type will then be resumed in China under license from Antonov.
Antonov Airlines (ADB, Gostomel) operates the only operational An-225, UR-82060 (msn 19530503763), on special ultra heavy lift missions across the world. Featuring six ZMKB Ivchenko-Progress D-18 turbofans with a Maximum Take Off Weight of 640,000 kg, the 28 year-old An-225 was originally designed to carry the Soviet Union's Buran Space Shuttle. However, following the collapse of the USSR in 1991, the aircraft was subsequently converted to commercial use.
