World's Largest Plane Destroyed in Ukraine Once Flew in Minnesota

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Avia

Being a semi-aviation geek, I saw several stories earlier this week about how the largest airplane in the world, the Antonov-225 (AN-225) -- nicknamed the "Mriya" (which is Ukrainian for "The Dream") -- was feared destroyed by advancing Russian troops as it sat near the city of Kyiv.

Well, the sad news is that the Ukrainian government confirmed on their Twitter page that the massive plane, was, in fact, destroyed earlier this week as it sat at a hangar undergoing repairs at Hostomel (or Gostomel) airport, located just northwest of the city of Kyiv.

Though Ukrainian officials apparently plan to rebuild the mammoth plane, all we have left of it now are memories. Like of the time the AN-225 flew into the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP) here in the Land of 10,000 Lakes.

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You have to go back to July 2nd, 2014 for the last time that huge plane graced the runways at MSP, attracting crowds of Minnesota aviation enthusiasts along Highway-77 to watch the plane take off again.

According to this Fox 2 story, the AN-225 was originally built in the 1980s to deliver rocket boosters and space shuttle orbiters but had more recently been used as a heavy-lift cargo plane. While its payloads were often never disclosed, it apparently flew into Minnesota in 2014 to transport several massive Trane air conditioning units to the Middle East.

You can check out what it looked like taking off from MSP 8 years ago in the video below. And, speaking of memories, Minnesota's Med City sure has a lot of them. Keep scrolling to check out how much Rochester has changed over the years!

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Wow! Check out how Rochester has changed throughout the years in these Google photos.

As we are soaring down Hwy 52, it is hard to imagine what life was like in our town before the Target store was built where it is today. Or the house that you live in now, at one point in town, that wasn't there. In fact, Rochester has grown so fast throughout the years, most of our houses weren't even around 50 years ago! Don't believe me? Look through these photos to get a glimpse of what Rochester was like years ago.