Editing Antonov (section)

====Late Soviet-era: superlarge projects and first commercialisation====
[[File:An-225 front day V1.jpg|thumb|right|[[An-225]] which was previously the largest operative aircraft in the world was recently destroyed in 2022.]]
In the late 1980s, the Antonov Bureau achieved global prominence after the introduction of its extra large aeroplanes. The [[Antonov An-124|An-124 "Ruslan"]] (1982) became the Soviet Union's mass-produced [[military transport aircraft|strategic airlifter]] under the leadership of Chief Designer [[Viktor Tolmachev]].{{citation needed|date=October 2017}} The Bureau enlarged the "Ruslan" design even more for the [[Buran programme|Soviet spaceplane programme]] logistics, creating the [[Antonov An-225 Mriya|An-225 "Mriya"]] in 1985. "Mriya" was the world's largest and heaviest aeroplane.<ref>{{Cite news |last= |date=2023-03-10 |title=Ukraine detains officials over destruction of famous plane at start of war |language=en |work=[[Reuters]] |url=https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukraine-detains-officials-over-destruction-famous-plane-start-war-2023-03-10/ |access-date=2023-05-09}}</ref>

The end of the [[Cold War]] and [[perestroika]] allowed the Antonov company's first step to commercialisation and foreign expansion. In 1989, the [[Antonov Airlines]] subsidiary was created for its own aircraft maintenance and [[cargo airline|cargo]] projects.