Russia's Volga-Dnepr Airlines has asked the US Department of Transportation for an emergency exemption to enable it to fly two one-way charters for the United Launch Alliance on its massive Antonov An-124-100 Condor airlifters.
The flights, which are expected to be from Huntsville, Alabama, to Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, should happen anywhere from around April 26, 2012 to May 1, 2012. Volga-Dnepr would be hauling an Atlas Centaur III tank, measuring 52 feet by 12 feet by 14 feet and weighing around 40,150 lbs. The An-124 will also move an Atlas booster tank, measuring 119 feet by 13.5 feet by 14 feet and weighing about 81,400 lbs. No US domestic commercial air freighter has that kind of capacity and the cargo is too delicate to be ground transported.
Volga-Dnepr made the request on April 18.
Designed as heavy strategic airlifter for the Soviet Air Force, the An-124 was first flown in 1982. It is larger and can carry some 25% more cargo than the Lockheed Martin C-5 Galaxy--its nearest western equivalent. While it's a monster, the An-124 is dwarfed by its much larger sibling the An-225--only one of which was completed before the breakup of the Soviet Union.
The flights, which are expected to be from Huntsville, Alabama, to Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, should happen anywhere from around April 26, 2012 to May 1, 2012. Volga-Dnepr would be hauling an Atlas Centaur III tank, measuring 52 feet by 12 feet by 14 feet and weighing around 40,150 lbs. The An-124 will also move an Atlas booster tank, measuring 119 feet by 13.5 feet by 14 feet and weighing about 81,400 lbs. No US domestic commercial air freighter has that kind of capacity and the cargo is too delicate to be ground transported.
Volga-Dnepr made the request on April 18.
Designed as heavy strategic airlifter for the Soviet Air Force, the An-124 was first flown in 1982. It is larger and can carry some 25% more cargo than the Lockheed Martin C-5 Galaxy--its nearest western equivalent. While it's a monster, the An-124 is dwarfed by its much larger sibling the An-225--only one of which was completed before the breakup of the Soviet Union.
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