During the recent invasion of Ukraine by Russia, Russia burned down and destroyed the AN-225 in revengeful spite.
Asobo/Microsoft should start developing the AN-225 for MSFS to this legend can live on. Something that Russia can’t get rid of.
Source: [REDACTED DUE TO POLITICAL NATURE]
Updates:
Update 1:
It went from Investigation to Planned
Update 2:
It went from Planned to Started. Antonov got back to Asobo, the Antonov AN-2 is coming soon. Contract isn’t signed yet but in the works.
Jorg wanted to preserve the 225, talked to the art team about it and he said “I think we can make this work.” Revenue from this 225 in-game will be donated to Antonov to help remake the plane again.
Asobo is a game studio, not a political entity judging Russia, Ukraine or NATO behaviors and take side.
That would be a touchy subject. Although it certainly fits the local legends theme
Furthermore, that’s a one of a kind complex “liner”, probably better fitted for a third party dev. I wouldn’t see it happenning, even if it wasn’t for the sad news.
You’re absolutely right. Because the situation hasn’t changed at all in the last week.
I would LOVE to see the Mryia immortalized in MSFS. She’s got quite a few world records to her name, and drew crowds of aviation enthusiasts wherever she went. I only hope that once the current nonsense settles down that Antonov and build / improve the 2nd fuselage into a functioning aircraft.
You might be thinking of the An-124 “Ruslan” - they built 55 of those. As of 2019, there were 19 in service. The An-124 had four engines instead of the six that the An-225 had. I believe the -225 fuselage was developed from it though.
There is an An-124-102 which was planned, and is larger than the regular -124. (it’s about 30 feet longer) It was joint development with Russia though, so something tells me that project would only go forward if it was Antonov by themselves now.
I am ambivalent on this. On one hand, it’s a very complex aircraft and building it for the sim would be colossal work. On the other? The level of complexity Asobo does for all their releases thus far? It’s not really all that in-depth. It could be done as a more simplified offering. But even outside of the AN-225 project, I think doing an Antonov aircraft would be a stellar idea. I know Antonov has a lot of stuff on their minds right now due to the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in their country, but this is an opportunity to for them to help themselves as well. Microsoft/Asobo could also do a charity to help Ukraine in this instance and donate the proceeds to humanitarian relief in Ukraine and at the same time offer a way for people to think of Ukraine in this difficult time. An already developed AN-2 would be one such way, I think you’d just have to pitch it to Antonov in the right way. But what do I know? I am not Jorg, he may have a different approach.
I’ve been thinking since the awful conflict broke out in Ukraine about how we could maybe support the ukranian people as a community.
As many aviation enthusiasts will know, the largest plane in the world (The Antonov) was recently destroyed by the russians and I wondered if Asobo might look at creating this plane as payware on a pre-order basis with the proceeds partly or fully going to the DEC (or equivalent) appeal.
Be interested to get thoughts? I know the actual developement would take months but the ability to pre-order would allow the community to contribute to the effort now.
Be interested on thoughts? Not sure where this thread should actually live so feel free to move as appropriate
Likely to be judged as against the forum rules, as much as I was awed by that plane.
Mind you, we could always use the existing in-sim drone to record footage over Odessa, Kyiv, or Mariupol as it used to be and post screenshots. Nothing in the rules against that.
Of all the planes this would be the most interesting and an instant buy for me. We could even make proceeds go to Ukraine to help support the people. I am all for it.
One of my buddies who’s a long time guitar player did a couple of benefit concerts on “Stageit” and donated all the proceeds to a charity helping the Ukrainian people. It’s this kinda stuff that makes me happy!
