Whoops – Size Matters

 

This morning at the early hour of 5:45am, Lisa and I were sitting on our Qantas flight to Broome Australia, when our Captain announced that taking off in front of us would be the largest aircraft in the world, the Ukraine-built Anotnov An-225 Mriya. This aircraft had caused quite a stir in Perth when it landed the other day to deliver a 128 ton generator. For two days, roads around the airport were brought to a standstill as people from all over the region flocked to see this enormous beast. Fully loaded the aircraft weighs in at 660 tons. By comparison, a Boeing 747-8 weighs in at a puny 493 tons. I was excited to see if I could see the plane, and as luck would have it, even though it was still dark, the aircraft took off on an intersecting runway, and so I got a good look as it roared by and lifted into the morning sky. Even though it did not take off on our runway, the fact that it crossed our runway meant that we had to hold for several minutes to avoid any wake turbulence.

This incident made me realize that in my last blog, I was so excited about having been on one of the longest non-stop flights in the world that I forgot to mention that we had made the trip on the largest “commercial aircraft in the world,” the Airbus 380. Depending on the configuration of the interior, it can carry anywhere from 585 passengers up to 700 passengers. So, seeing the Anotnov this morning made me wonder how the weights compared, and the Anotnov is indeed the winner, since the Airbus tops in at only 560 tons.

Anyway, we have finally met up with our dear friends Michele and Cathy, and are now waiting the only hotel in Broome for the opportunity to board our ship.

So again, G’day mate,

Jim