Airplane Watching and Recognition
If your cursor transforms itself into a pointing hand while on a picture simply click on it- Antonov An-124 -
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Of course theAntonov An-124 isn"t as fat as this modified title picture suggests... | |||
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| But it is still the second largest plane in the world just behind another Antonov Design Bureau plane, the 6 jet engines Mriya (dream) AN-225. | ||||
| These An-124 pictures were taken near the Air Canada hangar but it is Bombardier that charters the plane. Bombardier builds its fuselages in one plant but assebles the planes in another. It takes large jumbo jets to carry these parts from location to another, like Airbus and its "Beluga" planes. | ||||
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| At this time (early 2001), the An-124 is a regular sight in Montreal skies. It delivers fuselages from Short industries in Ireland to Montreal Dorval at least once a week, sometimes twice a week.
One An-124 can carry fuselage sections for two Challengers and one Regional Jet and various parts as well in the same flight. A note of interest : the An-124 is an uncommon plane with unusual dimensions, it has to carry its tow bar as well as its cargo load since the ground equipment of airports are not equipped to tow such a plane on the ground.. The week-end these pictures were taken (a Sunday), I saw another An-124 the day before, but it was going to Mirabel, were Bombardier as another assembly plant. Assembly rate was stepped up for Regional jets. (They also assemble Challengers and Global Express). In the Macrh 2001 issue of Airways magazine a complete article is dedicated to the "Bombardier Regional Aircraft Phenomenon". It is said that at the roll-out of the first RJ, the estimated need for this type of aircraft would be 400 to 500. The 400th was delivered in May 2000, the 500th will be in 2001. In March 2001, there were 460 RJ delivered, 491 backloged and 842 on option. For a potential grand total of 1793... |
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This plane remind you of the amrican giant C-5 Galaxy? Let's go see...
Texte / Text : Jean-Pierre Bonin © 1999-2000-2001
Some pictures on this page are available in enlarged version (~ 250 Kb).
If your cursor transforms itself into a pointing hand while on a picture simply click on it
You remember a few characteristics of the plane but can't remember the name?
Try this visual guide. I hope it will help you.Click on the drawings to go to the visual identification guide.
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Web site conception and production , text, pictures and illustrations : Jean-Pierre Bonin © 1999-2000-2001 Send suggestions and comments to : djipibi@hotmail.com If you use my pictures or illustrations, please
send me your web page address by e-mail.
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