Could a variant of the C-5 be developed with a longer fuselage, larger wings and six engines to fill the same role the Antonov An-225 Mriya once did?
Posted by BRUNO358@reddit | aviation | View on Reddit | 12 comments
1039198468@reddit
Sure but the market has shown no need. Remember the An-225 was built for a specific purpose and while it’s great it found a new role after Buran there seems to be no demonstrated need to offset the cost of engineering and certification of a such a (cool) beast.
Shadowrend01@reddit
Could it? Yes
Would it? No
There isn’t enough demand to justify it. The An-225 being gone hasn’t really disrupted anything
Tessa_James11@reddit
while we wait for somebody to rebuild Mriya?
Adjutant_Reflex_@reddit
No one is actually rebuilding Mriya. Antonov brings up occasionally but it still comes back to: where’s the demand? She’s been dead for 4 years now and there’s been no major disruption.
PeteyMcPetey@reddit
Needs to happen, just for cool points.
I saw the AN-225 land around 2004-2005 in Kandahar.
They brought it in to haul a huge load of MHE, and it was so heavy that it left visible depressions in the tarmac where it parked (Foxtrot taxiway), and they said it couldn't come back anymore after that.
DeadEndTimes@reddit
But wait, what if somebody rebuilds Buran? How would we transport it while we wait for somebody to rebuild Mriya?
YupYup_3@reddit
It would be cool. However, we can’t even get a 737/777/767(kc46) or b-52 update through certification; in a timely manner. And these are based off proven and working airframes. Like, not even making them bigger as you suggest.
Specialist_Reality96@reddit
Sure, why you want to build a plane to carry around the defunct soviet era space shuttle Buran is the question.
exurl@reddit
if my grandmother had wheels she would have been a bike
shrunkenhead041@reddit
From what I've read, the C-5 in its current state is already nightmare to maintain.
fly_awayyy@reddit
The C5 it self needs replacement lmao?
Festivefire@reddit
To drastically increase it's max cargo weight, you would probably need to do significant redesign work on the fuselage and wing box, and it would probably be cheaper to start from scratch at this point. The C-5 is a very old airplane that does not have an active assembly line right now anyways.