The world's largest airplane dominated the sky well before taking its turn to land Thursday at Bush Intercontinental Airport.
The Antonov AN-225 Mriya was following an Airbus A320 on its approach to the runway. And despite being about five miles behind the other plane, they appeared to be the same size.
"It is a huge thrill to see something so massive flying through the skies, and I think that's what draws so many people out every single time," Nathan Moeller, 29, of Spring, said.
Moeller and about 10 other plane spotters gathered at a nearby soccer field to watch the landing. Others gathered on the top floor of the airport parking garage to see the world's one and only AN-225, a Soviet-made aircraft that is the largest plane currently in operation. At the airport, equally excited employees took pictures of the infrequently spotted behemoth.
The AN-225 has six engines and a wingspan of 290 feet, according to widely cited data. To compare that with large passenger aircraft, the Airbus A380 has four engines and a wingspan of 261 feet, 8 inches. The Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner has two engines and a wingspan of a little more than 197 feet.
The AN-225 took its maiden flight in December 1988 and is known for carrying the Soviet unio's Buran space shuttle. It was later re-purposed as a cargo carrier.
Bush Intercontinental will sporadically host the AN-225. On Sunday, it came from Goose Bay Airport in Canada and landed in Houston. It then continued to several South American airports before returning to Houston on Thursday to pick up a load of cargo. Its next destination is Orlando, then back to South America.
Moeller saw the plane both Thursday and Sunday; previously, he'd seen it once in 2015 and once in 2013. He has loved planes since a young age. Both his grandfathers were in the U.S. Air Force, so they got him close to aircraft as a child. His father took him to the airport, too.
When Moeller isn't helping develop computer-based training for pilots, his day job, he's tweeting about planes as @Astro95Media. His friends at the airport made sure he got up close to the AN-225 while it was in Houston.
"It's so hard to believe that something so massive actually gets off the ground," he said.
