The Endgame

Newsletter #18 - Going nowhere

This newsletter looks at issues and events from the endgame point of view. The endgame is a chess concept. In the endgame only a handful of pieces are left on the board. Few moves remain. Victory or defeat is close. Player options are limited and diminishing.

Toronto, April 2, 2023

Going nowhere

Why am I interested in the Antonov An-225 Mriya? First, I’m amazed that such a gigantic aircraft was ever able to get off the ground. Who knew that such a thing was possible? (I know, lift and thrust, etc., etc.). More than that, I’m curious how a huge plane became a national symbol of Ukraine. That seems weird.

Mriya was designed and built in Kyiv when Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union. Its maiden flight was in 1988. Mriya was the largest and heaviest aircraft ever constructed, with six turbofan engines and 32 landing wheels. It was built to transport the Soviet Buran space shuttle, but the Buran project was soon cancelled. After Buran, Mriya was mostly used to carry huge payloads that no other cargo plane could manage—generators, wind turbine blades, diesel locomotives, and the like. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Ukraine kept the aircraft. When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Mriya was destroyed in early fighting.

“Mriya” is Ukrainian for “The Dream.” In the words of The New York Times, the aircraft became “a cherished symbol of Ukraine” and “Ukraine’s winged ambassador to the world.” Wherever the plane went, huge crowds turned out to gawp. When it landed in Perth, Australia in 2016, it was greeted by 20,000 spectators and a water cannon salute. Today, even though the plane is kaput, its Facebook group has over 100,000 members.

Mriya was destroyed on February 24, 2022 when the Russians attacked Hostomel airfield, near Kyiv, where it was hangered. What exactly happened, and why Mriya was at Hostomel, is unclear. Ukraine had been warned by the United States that an attack on the airfield was imminent and plans had been made to fly the plane to Leipzig. The Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) has investigated possible cooperation with Russian forces by senior officials of Mriya’s owner and operator, State Enterprise Antonov. This March three Antonov officials were arrested. The SSU said, "[T]he officials refused the National Guard of Ukraine permission to enter the territory of the Hostomel airfield to prepare for its defence." No explanation has been given for their behaviour.

Volodymyr Zelensky announced in May 2022 that Ukraine would rebuild Mriya. The New York Times reported: “Workers are unbolting what they can from the soot-smeared wreckage and engineers are drafting plans to use these rescued parts, along with spare parts, engines from a similar aircraft and a long-mothballed extra fuselage — to build a new airplane, company executive [sic] say. The project is expected to cost about $500 million...” 

The announcement that Mriya will be rebuilt is likely just patriotic hand-waving. In the circumstances of Ukraine, why spend a fortune in this way? As The New York Times said (see above): “Even the plane’s main appeal, its gigantism, has drawn criticism as a holdover of Soviet mentality that Ukraine has no need for today. The Soviets built ‘the world’s largest locomotive, bulldozer, sugar factory, iron smelter and so on,’ one critic, Serhiy Marchenko, wrote on Facebook. ‘All these greatest things have one thing in common: senselessness.’”

There is a local footnote to the Mriya story. A Russian-operated Antonov 124, the world's 2nd largest cargo aircraft after Mriya, has been stuck at Pearson Airport in Toronto since February 27, 2022. That was when the Canadian government closed Canada's airspace to all Russian aircraft.

Another giant aircraft going nowhere.

P.S. My new book is Antisemitism: An ancient hatred in the age of identity politics.  You can get it at the usual places.