_is_carefully_loaded_onto_a_Russian-built_An-124_Condor_(Antonov).jpg)
5 photos from Wikimedia Commons · credits & licences
- 1. Антонов Ан-124 9773054055093, Москва - Домодедово RP2297: Alex Beltyukov· CC BY-SA 3.0
- 2. An-124 RA-82028 in formation with Su-27 09-May-2010: Sergey Kustov· CC BY-SA 3.0
- 3. Loading ramp of an An-124: Brian Bahret, U.S. Air Force· Public domain
- 4. US Navy 040429-N-7949W-001 The Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle Mystic (DSRV 1) is carefully loaded onto a Russian-built An-124 Condor (Antonov): U.S. Navy photo by Photographer's Mate 1st Class Daniel N. Woods.· Public domain
- 5. Volga-Dnepr Antonov An-124-100M-150 and Cubana Ilyushin Il-96-300: Dmitriy Pichugin· GFDL 1.2
what is it?
The Antonov An-124 Ruslan (Russian: Антонов Ан-124 Руслан; Ukrainian: Ан-124 Руслан; NATO reporting name: Condor) is a large, strategic airlift, four-engined aircraft that was designed in the 1980s by the Antonov Design Bureau in the Ukrainian SSR of the Soviet Union (USSR). The An-124 is the world's second heaviest gross weight production cargo airplane and heaviest operating cargo aircraft, behind the destroyed one-off Antonov An-225 Mriya (an enlarged derivative of the An-124). The An-124 remains the largest military transport aircraft in service.
How to recognise it: 4 jet engines · shoulder wing · retractable tricycle gear · 73.3 m wingspan
base stats
Bars compare against all aircraft: 3,500 km/h, 20,000 km, 850 seats; size and number built on a log scale up to 640 t (An-225) and 45,000 built (Cessna 172).
fun facts
- First flew 44 years ago, in 1982.
- Wingspan of 73.3 m: about 16 cars parked nose to tail.
- Fully loaded it can weigh as much as 67 African elephants (~6 t each).
- Range of 3,700 km: 21× Amsterdam to Brussels.
- Can fly 1.4× higher than Mount Everest (8,849 m).
jet: Gas turbine pushing air out the back (turbofan or turbojet): fast and high-flying.
spec sheet
- first flight
- 1982-12-26
- introduced
- 1987
- status
- still flying
- number built
- 55
- role
- heavy transport aircraft
- origin
- 🇷🇺 Soviet Union
- makers
- Aviastar-SP, Ulyanovsk Aviation Industrial Complex, Antonov Serial Production Plant
- engines
- 4× Progress D-18T (D-18 Series 4 on -150 models) / Progress D-18T
- passengers
- 350
- length
- 69.1 m
- wingspan
- 73.3 m
- height
- 21.1 m
- max take-off weight
- 402 t
- top speed
- —
- cruise speed
- 865 km/h
- range
- 3,700 km
- ceiling
- 12,000 m
- wings
- shoulder wing
- landing gear
- retractable tricycle gear
- ICAO code
- A124
Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q193487, Wikipedia: Antonov An-124 Ruslan (CC BY-SA 4.0), ICAO code from list of aircraft type designators.Updated 2026-10-24.