Antonov An-124 Ruslan

A turbine from the Mt. Vernon Rolls-Royce Energy Systems, Inc. plant is loaded onto an Antonov An-124 Ruslan en route to the Ukraine photographed April 29, 2009 at the Rickenbacker International Airport.

The Antonov An-124 Ruslan (Russian: Антонов Ан-124 “Руслан”) (NATO reporting name: Condor) is a strategic airlift jet aircraft. It was designed in the 1980s by the Antonov design bureau in the Ukrainian SSR, then part of the Soviet Union (USSR). Until the Boeing 747-8F, the An-124 was, for thirty years, the world’s heaviest gross weightproduction cargo airplane and second heaviest operating cargo aircraft, behind the one-off Antonov An-225 (a greatly enlarged design based on the An-124). The An-124 remains the largest military transport aircraft in the world. The lead designer of the An-124 (and the An-225) was Viktor Tolmachev, who continues to serve as Technical Director of Volga-Dnepr.

During development it was known as Izdeliye 400 (Product #400) in house, and An-40 in the West. First flown in 1982, civil certification was issued on 30 December 1992. In July 2013, 26 An-124s were in commercial service with 10 on order. In August 2014, it was reported that Antonov An-124 production was stopped due to the ongoing political tensions between Russia and Ukraine. The various operators of the An-124 are in discussions with respect to the continuing airworthiness certification of the individual An-124 planes. The original designer of the An-124 is responsible for managing the certification process for its own products, but Russian/Ukrainian conflicts are making this process difficult to manage. Military operators are able to self-certify the airworthiness of their own aircraft, but Russian civil operators must find a credible outside authority for certification if Ukraine is unable to participate in the process.

Rickenbacker International Airport (IATA: LCK, ICAO: KLCK, FAA LID: LCK) is a civil-military public airport 10 miles (16 km) south of downtown Columbus, near Lockbourne in southern Franklin County, Ohio, United States. The south end of the airport extends into Pickaway County. The base was named for flying ace and Columbus native Eddie Rickenbacker. It is managed by the Columbus Regional Airport Authority, which also operates John Glenn Columbus International Airportand Bolton Field. Rickenbacker International is primarily a cargo airport for the city of Columbus, although since 2012 it has served an increasing number of passenger flights as well as charter carriers.

The United States Air Force maintains a presence in the form of the Ohio Air National Guard‘s 121st Air Refueling Wing, Rickenbacker International is also home of the Ohio Army National Guard’s Army Aviation Support Facility No. 2 and the headquarters for the Ohio Military Reserve, one of the state defense forces of Ohio.