
Antonov An-124
It took a while before the Soviet Union had a heavy transport airplane similar to the Lockheed Galaxy. Like the US counterpart the Antonov An-124 Ruslan (NATO code name Condor) is a high wing aircraft with four jet engines attached to pylons under the wings. The cockpit was placed well above the cargo area to enable cargo loading through a nose door. Also similar to the C-5 is that the cockpit profile is extended down the length of the fuselage, giving it an egg-shaped cross section. It is well visible when viewing the aircraft from the front. At the rear the fuselage slopes up and ends in a pointed tail cone. The An-124 has a conventional tail, with the horizontal stabilisers being attached to the rear fuselage. Below is a cargo door with loading ramp. The landing gear consists of five double-wheel bogeys on each side, retracting in pods at the side of the fuselage, and two double wheel nose gears next to each other.
Different versions
Essentially, to date there are only two versions, the An-124 military transport and the An-124-100 civil variant. Externally, they seem the same though, and therefore we make no distinction here.
Confusion possible with
Lockheed C-5 Galaxy
The C-5 is similar in size as the An-124 and also has an egg-shaped fuselage cross section and a cargo door in the nose. However, there is one big difference, namely the location of the horizontal stabiliser: The Galaxy has a T-tail. Also, the C-5 has four six wheel main landing gears and a four wheel nose gear.
Antonov An-225
The An-225 is basically an enlarged version of the An-124, with six engines, fourteen main landing gear legs and an H-tail. All those features make the An-225 easy to recognise from it smaller brother.