Antonov An-124 Ruslan ''Condor''

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The Antonov An-124 Ruslan (Russian: Антонов Ан-124 Руслан, lit. 'Ruslan'; NATO reporting name: Condor) is a large, strategic airlift, four-engined aircraft that was designed in the 1980s by the Antonov design bureau in the Ukrainian SSR, then part of the Soviet Union (USSR). The An-124 is the world's heaviest gross weight production cargo airplane and second heaviest operating cargo aircraft, behind the one-off Antonov An-225 Mriya (a greatly enlarged design based on the An-124).[4] The An-124 remains the largest military transport aircraft in service.[5] The lead designer of the An-124 (and the An-225) was Viktor Tolmachev.[6]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.[7] In July 2013, 26 An-124s were in commercial service with 10 on order.[8]In August 2014, it was reported that plans to resume joint production of the Antonov An-124 had been shelved due to the ongoing political tensions between Russia and Ukraine.[9] The sole remaining production facility is Russia's Aviastar-SP in Ulyanovsk. 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 the Russia-Ukraine conflicts are making this process difficult to manage.[citation needed] In 2019, there were 26 An-124s in commercial service.