Super-Lifters: The Mega-jets that can Carry Anything

Uncover the fascinating world of super-lifters in our latest video! From the quirky Pregnant Guppy to the colossal An-225 Mriya, witness the evolution of aircraft that defy both gravity and aesthetics.
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[@JonathanEzor]

I love that Airbus leaned so much into the beluga theme by painting that face on the XL.

[@ThunderHunter2019]

RIP the Myria, I hope they can find the time in a few years to create that giant Soviet masterpiece again

[@GonkDroid0923]

There is a second (though unfinished) Myria that is roughly 75% complete but stopped construction in 1994. Antonov has said that they will use this second Mryia to rebuild the AN 225 due to its unique purpose of a super heavy lifter.

[@ShadowOppsRC]

Saw her once when I was deployed to the middle east before she was destroyed. She was a site to behold! Monsterous is the word that comes to mind!

[@ThunderHunter2019]

@@ShadowOppsRC ah cool!

[@szymonmaciak8930]

Oh trust me, they will, human nature, not only war defines our species but memory, they will remake that legendary beast again its only a matter of time and i hope i will live the day to see it. Sorry i watched doctor who not that long ago so i became giga smart for this comment XD. Purely human generated, one of the things that will become a rare thing. Well what ive learnt from bttf is that the future can be rewriten, but make it a good one.

[@danielhenzphotography]

The Myria is very impressive and also saw it more than 10 years ago. Thousands of people were at the airport whatch her take off.

[@LordPodlington]

I love that Airbus just leant hard into the Beluga name on the XL's. I think the face actually makes them look considerably less weird.

[@Altaree1]

Agreed. Boeing is just boring with their naming.

[@McWillis]

Love it when the writers can get Simon to break character. 4head/5head joke got me rolling.

[@poodlescone9700]

The Beluga is the most adorable heavy lifter.

[@24934637]

It IS! Only seen one flying up close once at the RIAT airshow, and it really did make me smile with it's happy face

[@24934637]

Amazing that it's such a MASSIVE plane with only 2 engines too!

[@mackenziemoore5088]

God, I love when Simon breaks character in his more serious videos 😂😂

[@bellshooter]

As a train engineer we used an Antonov to deliver Metro cars from Europe to China. The volume is less of an issue but the hard dimensions , width/length/height/mass are more important. 23mx3m metro cars were shipped 2 at a time with a weight of about 70 tonnes. To meet a contractual delivery!

[@oracleofdelphi4533]

Modern Superlifers: "Size matters" Myria: "It's not size that matters, it's what you do with it"

[@kevindorland738]

" metro cars " = rail cars or rail cars?

[@Yukikazehalo]

​@kevindorland738 train cars or subway cars. Antanov's have been used to move locomotives, large diesel motors and wind turbine parts in the past.

[@juliatarrel1674]

I had wondered why rail wasn't a satisfactory form of cargo carrying.

[@sameebah]

When the Beluga was being readied for the world, there was an internal poll among Airbus employees to decide on the paint scheme, with a number of variants being proposed. The smiling face won, but there was a pink version which was also very popular. I still think they missed a trick there, as that really would make a statement.

[@jmanj3917]

3:18 HEY!! That's MY joke, Brain Boy!

[@jeff4son]

The Boeing Dreamlifter flies over my house in north Seattle a lot. (It’s landing at their site in Everett, WA) It’s not particularly loud. But it is HUGE and hard to miss.

[@Jakobiplays]

its pretty loud when you live directly under the path it takes out of paine field, it shakes my windows sometimes

[@jeff4son]

@@Jakobiplays that sucks. But you got a great deal on that property for a reason. Paine field was built in 1936 it can’t be a surprise that living beside and airport would be loud. Not trying to be a jerk but…

[@oracleofdelphi4533]

7:45 "The AN-225 was too small..." Damn. Nuff said.

[@Habu12]

The Mriya was bulit to carry Buran parts, with the interior volume secondary. And yet, it's only about 1,000 cu.ft. short for carrying the fuselages. The -225 has 46,000 cu.ft. The Dreamlifter, 65,000 cu.ft.

[@big_ute]

When I worked for the State at Anchorage International Airport I got to see THE AN-225 up close and in person, and the word "gargantuan" is an understatement. While I was in the truck just looking a dude came up and asked if i wanted to see inside, turns out it was the copilot. That was prolly the coolest thing I had ever seen in my life at that point, got to see it come and go a few more times that summer.

[@vincenthopkins6345]

Ive seen 3 of the 4 Dreamlifters on the ground at the same time! Epic!!

[@dwaynne_way]

This and Simon's other channels have quickly become my go to channels to watch. I learn so much from his videos. Thank you Simon

[@NavyDood21]

I got to see the Super Guppy in person! It is such a funky but beautiful aircraft.

[@chaddog313]

I saw it at an airshow in Florida when I was a kid in the 80s. I didn't appreciate it as much then as I do now.

[@Iamthestig42069]

I saw the one at Pima Air and Space Museum. It’s the coolest museum! Nothing outdoors is roped off and they allow dogs!

[@industrialmonk]

I remember seeing the Airbus beluga at Manchester airport what a beast.

[@NeedsLessWedge]

These aircraft rock the "megamind' look

[@bholdr----0]

Yeah... I lived in the Seattle area near Boeing Field, and often was around The Everett plant (where 747, 787, 777 were/are built/ tested) and I used to see these suckers flying around once on a while... There are really something to see!

[@johnathandoe7079]

I wept pretty intensely when the Mriya was killed by the Russians, and it still hurts my heart every time I see pictures or videos of her. I doubt they'll ever rebuild her, but she lives on in my heart ❤️

[@HyBr1dRaNg3r]

Love the attempt to make a face on the BelugaXL😂Like a cute version of ww2 mustangs❤️

[@philbarrett3739]

A Beluga very slowly banks directly over our house in North Wales twice a week on average. I'll never forget the first time my wife and I saw it.

[@paulpennington2239]

In Liverpool England I see the Beluga's quite regularly ferrying wings to Arbus site in Broughton. And they never fail to impress

[@dinsdalemontypiranha4349]

Thanks Simon! It's always a treat to have a new Megaprojects video to watch, and the aerospace ones are my favorites.

[@ACME_Kinetics]

The Myasishchev VM-T deserves mention here as it carried Energia fuel tanks measuring 146ft by 25ft diameter externally. If anything it looks even more ridiculous than any of the planes in this video.

[@marsaustralis6881]

I'm reminded of the StratoLaunch twin-hull aircraft, or Roc. Prior to being hired by the US military for a number of specialized tests, they had planned to do similarly massive cargo transportation by using a large, pill-shaped cargo hull that could be attached and detached from the central mount point, allowing them to swap pods relatively fast between points. Only issue was finding viable airports that could handle its width.

[@angelitabecerra]

OMG, those Belugas faces are actually cute

[@roriquevernonii8439]

I was fortunate to have seen all except the Belugas and the Super Guppies on the ground in operation. I've seen the Super Guppy "eat" a whole T-38 (no disassembly required), and also seen it in heavy maintenance in Oklahoma. I've worked around a couple of AN-124s, amd left work to watch the AN-225 take off out of Anchorage, Alaska (so glad I did, now!). The Dreamlifters would also fly our of Achorage regularly. I would see them many times while walking from my car to work!

[@stevengaston8903]

I live in Charleston south carolina where one of the Boeing plants are. Words truly fail when describing how small you feel when driving by the dream lifter plane, truly a colossus of a jet plane

[@jasonward8118]

I saw a weird bulbous silver plane flying around Houston last fall. A quick flight radar search showed it was a super guppy. Never heard of it before and cool thing to see here.

[@KevinHarrington1979]

Hey Simon and team: Love when y'all do aviation stories ... BTW, Did you know Kelsey from the 74gear KZbin channel is a DreamLifter pilot? 😁

[@lowgrs1]

I was thinking about that

[@ramnificent]

I look forward to all your videos, on one all your channels, my day is not complete untill I listen to you and your team bring me the latest blockbuster. Love everything you do.

[@toddavis8151]

The Beluga name was originally only a joke nickname which stuck so much it became official. And apparently the whale paint scheme is the result of a fun competition between staff

[@mho...]

Living in Hamburg, ive seen the SuperGuppy & Beluga flying overhead all my life, quite the spectacle to see these "blimps with wings" flying around!

[@agent_meister477]

I love Simon's enthusiasm for this stuff.

[@saveus9132]

I grew up and live 9 miles away from Airbus in the UK, the beluga is a beast to witness and very impressive how short of a runway it needs.

[@marcbeebee6969]

Simon and planes, this will be interesting

[@giwilreker]

This blew my mind!

[@pegasusted2504]

When I was a kid my favourite 2 aircraft were the Harrier Jump-Jet and the Super Guppy.

[@oracleofdelphi4533]

F-14 for me. Then the Corsair F4U.

[@marcbeebee6969]

Then you would love the german v toll transporter from the cold war 😊

[@231Yamadori]

I worked on fightline next to a Harrier squadron, my hearing will never be the same even with double ear pro 😂

[@Istandby666]

When I was a kid, I used to go to air shows and walk through a few of these aircraft.

[@dinsdalemontypiranha4349]

Wow were you lucky! Sounds like lots of fun...

[@Istandby666]

@@dinsdalemontypiranha4349 Thank you, my biological father was an Air Force pilot. That made it easy...😁

[@jonvia]

Wow these mega jets just live in holiday mode. No diets for those giants.

[@blackace7782]

The "5 head" I give that a...5 🌟

[@sabre_phoenix5996]

I was obsessed with that super guppy as a kid, this video made me happy

[@rause8622]

I’ve seen these at airshows, always wanted to learn more about them!

[@Happymali10]

Airbus here in Hamburg holds a "family day" once a year, which usually leads to the Super Guppy, Beluga and sometimes Beluga XL parked side by side. Quite the sight.

[@quinncampbell9255]

Remindse of that machine, i think it was a super magnet, that was essential for the Manhattan project. So had super interesting journey and logistics of moving it.

[@Soh90]

I’ve heard that five-head joke dozens of times. Hell I JUST used it this weekend to describe a guest at my sister-in-law’s wedding (long story). But hearing it come from Simon made me burst out in laughter. And then seeing him break character while I was already laughing brought me to tears 😂😂🤣🤣🤣.

[@j4s0n39]

I'm taking flight lessons at KPAE near Boeing's Everett facility, so when I do pattern work, I sometimes see an Antonov and a Dreamlifter. They are absolutely massive.

[@kineticdeath]

6:45 the title card shows a RETFIL(MAERD, built by GNIEOB a quick edit - to be fair to the 225, it could in truth carry a plane externally, like a complete plane if it wanted too given how it was literally intended to to carry a soviet buran shuttle on its back

[@NIHILWR]

ayyyy i saw that dreamlifter that got stuck in KS. was pretty cool seeing it take off again

[@stuarttupp3541]

You could also mention the ATL-98 Carvair. It's a similar kind of idea, take an existing plane and modify it to carry unusual cargo.

[@tfcagent4825]

Yo I love your videos, think you do great on all your channels. On this video though, I couldn’t stop staring at your beard. Just seemed so asymmetric

[@DouglasJWalker]

That was fun

[@garnermcculloch2778]

I live close to NASA in Houston and every once in a while I see the super guppy fly over and every single time I stop what I’m doing and watch it. Lol.

[@sundragon7703]

One of the amazing features of the Dreamlifter was the 3 hinges that held the tail section to the fuselage as cargo was unloaded/loaded. In the US, observing Dreamlifter operations should be on a planespotter's bucket list at Boeing South Carolina.

[@kineuhansen8629]

i think it was just a few weeks before the war the 225 was here in denmark but i lost the change to see her and i am truly looking forword to the new one

[@Nagria2112]

wow now i feel special. i didn´t know they are rare, seen 2 irl

[@ialrakis5173]

the next step would be adding extra fuselages on the sides but that's probably a bit too much. Guess the future for this is in the blended wingbody design.

[@thekeytoairpower]

I saw another video on the Super Guppy... it is mentioned in passing here that airbus used it but iirc they were in two minds about relying on the boeing product

[@stephencannon3140]

A few years ago there was a livery of the Dreamlifter with basically a great white Shark, swallowing the cargo

[@isaacfortner]

I’ve been inside the mini-guppy on display at Tillamook Air Museum in Oregon! Even that smaller version felt massive inside.

[@georgewyatt2924]

I saw the Antonov 225 land at CYYZ during the pandemic. What a sight! So sad they didn't get it out of Ukraine when hostilities started.

[@TXREDVR6]

I lived near Ellington Field in Texas got to see the Super Guppy fly near my house a lot and see it parked in the hanger when I passed by it on way home from my friends house.

[@eaphantom9214]

0:16 - RIP Antonov AN-225 14:26 - Mriya Ukranian for (Dream) 😔

[@Istandby666]

The Antonov used to land here. That plane is huge.

[@kai_plays_khomus]

I've seen both the _Antonow Mriya_ and _Airbus Beluga_ at ILA Berlin - they had opened the Beluga's frontal gate and set up a provisional bridge crossing above its cockpit so you'd stand directly in its gaping mouth looking into its cargo bay of titanic proportions. Mriya was that massive that it was difficult to believe it could actually take off but thanks to living close to BER airport I saw both of them taking off when returning to home. Living there you got used to see large airliners over head, but these two still managed to easily dwarf them. I'm sad that the massive cargo airship they planned to build just a few kilometres south of Berlin never took off - it would have been the only flying object even larger for me to witness in what likely is all of my life. The funding ran out and left behind one of the biggest if not _the biggest_ free standing hangar in the world - high enough to perform basejumps and large enough to fly circles with a Cessna. It's this big that they had to come up with a special ventilation system to prevent rain clouds building up inside. Today there's a waterpark with a tropical indoor forest and free running animals called _"Tropical Island"_ inside - but I still would have preferred the Cargolifter airship..

[@kidShibuya]

Got to push the gain on the volume a little more, it's close to not being distorted.

[@jentzart]

I’ve been inside the Boeing Dreamlifter twice! Once at an airshow in Wichita when it was first built and a few years later. The thing is absolutely shocking how huge it is. When standing beside it, it’s so tall and when inside, it feels like the inside of a building 😂

[@Altaree1]

You left off the granddaddy of this series. The wooden wonder. The Spruce Goose! I recently saw this at the Evergreen Air and Space museum in Oregon and it is AMAZING!

[@owenshebbeare2999]

Which flew once, in ground effect, and the tail almost fell off on that minor effort. It also never carried a load and had no out-sized loading capability.

[@SandrA-hr5zk]

Kelsey from 74Gear is licensed to fly the DreamLifter. These planes are pretty damn cool.

[@GeorgeRuffner-iy7bm]

I did not know that there were significantly more aircraft of this type. Thanks for my update. 🙈🙉🙊 😎 🇺🇸

[@MF_UNDERTOW]

I live in the Seattle area and we see Dream Lifters fairly often since Boeing has two large factories in the area. Seeing a plane that large flying through the air is wild.

[@npkiv]

Used to see these loads when they flew into Manchester.

[@toweleeielite]

had an XL skim the roof today going into Liverpool airport, abit to windy at chester, fecking HUGE thing!!

[@kw8757]

You used to be able to stand at the end of the (Hawarden) Broughton plant airfield runway, right behind the Belugas as they started their take-off, or directly under it as it climbed from the end of the runway, depending on which way the wind was blowing. You still can, but they've put high protective fencing up which spoils the view a bit, but still very impressive.

[@FishermanKyle]

Shouldve mentioned other antonov crafts. I mean that's just their flagship. They produced 55 aircraft the size of the dreamlifter with similar lift capacity. Granted, i didn't know that until i did my own research after this video, but still wouldve been cool to see

[@TheRattail]

as someone who certainly always was into aviation, I can say I see at least one kind of super-lifter regularly. I live in Hamburg Germany and here peaty much at least one beluga a day lands at the Airbus facility.

[@AvB.83]

07:50 Imagine looking at the most enormous cargo plane ever build, looking back at your cargo and realising "nah... it's too small." 😅 What I find most impressive about some of these aircraft is that to load the cargo, the aircraft would literally split in two halfs. Great thing about these planes is their looks are SO unique, even if you aren't that much into modern jetliners, you will recognize them when you see them. I might be able to tell a 747 from other aircraft, but with most others, unless its written on the side in huge letters, I can't even tell if it's Airbus or Boeing. I have however seen a few A-124 (on the ground at Halle-Leipzig airport) and a Beluga in very low flight near Bremen airport/Airbus Bremen. The later was a sight to behold.

[@asylumental]

"Different cargo for different cargo holds" 😏😏 Anyone who has watched simon go off about Uranus knows that cargo comment was definitely innuendo. 😂

[@ignitionfrn2223]

0:50 - Chapter 1 - Pregnant guppy ; super suppy 6:45 - Chapter 2 - The dreamlifter 9:40 - Chapter 3 - The beluga family 14:25 - Chapter 4 - The an 225 mriya

[@dorsk84]

Just an FYI. The AN-225 had plans to put a cargo pod on its back. It was designed to haul the Russian Shuttle-ski....

[@jcrawford5569]

Simon- you should reach out to Kelsey w/ 74gear. He flies mod 747’s

[@lowgrs1]

that would be awesome

[@bryanst.martin7134]

T56 Allison turboprops on the Superguppy's. 4600SHP each engine. Lighter and cheaper to operate. P3's, C130's, E2 Hawkeye/C2 COD, even ship power generators used this turboprop(shaft).

[@only1mr.j466]

How did I not know about any of these?

[@BonesyTucson]

I would love to hear from a pilot of one of these planes, what the handling and stuff is like compared to other planes :)

[@hooks4638]

I can't believe those airbus beluga planes use just 2 engines.

[@lacyLor]

There’s a highway running right next to that small airfield where that Dream Lifter accidentally landed in my hometown. I happened to drive by and see it sitting there, stuck, right next to the road and I was so shocked I almost wrecked my car 😂

[@johndunkelburg9495]

You forgot a part of tge Super Guppy family, the Mini-Guppy. Built out of parts from the Super Guppy, you showed the image of one of the last Mini-Guppies on display outside of the Tillamook Air Museum at Tillamook, OR in the livery of Erikson Air Crane, the last company to operate it.

[@jeremysommer147]

The Belugas having a station in Wales is low key hilarious

[@chrislong3938]

3:17 - They'd have called it a Whistler.... if Simon had been around then!

[@pittyman]

Super-lifters to be not mistaken with super-shop-lifters...😎

[@robeylemere]

In Oregon we’re lucky enough to have the mini Guppy and the Spruce Goose!

[@Mindinvasion]

Living very close the hamburg location of airbus, seeing the beluga xl in the sky very often and if im driving by, sometimes seeing the take of, which to this day always feels like it just shouldnt have lift off 😂

[@jedharding3492]

Idea for future topic: the White Alice Communication System

[@chadr2604]

Dirigibles would be perfect for this. Volume increases faster than surface area. A 1500 foot long 300 foot diameter all metal dirigible would lift 1000 tons.

[@mohammedsaysrashid3587]

Nice video about a Gaint Transportation NASA project 👍🏻. .. comparably to Soviet myria transporter airplane ✈️ 👌

[@Max-kw2hp]

Sweet

[@huwzebediahthomas9193]

Give me big wings and flaps.

[@GrandmaKeith]

RIP MRIYA

[@josephjones4293]

It’s stored in el paso texas… I am not an enthusiast and have a Few dozen photos

[@billv546]

Oh cool PREGNANT GUPPY carried Titan II Rocket parts👍

[@user-rs6fi6dq5c]

this shit is awsome!