Emily and I were in Charlotte this past weekend for a wedding. In normal style we went to the airport to watch some plane action. Saturday wasn't very busy so we decided to head back to the hotel to get ready for the wedding a little early. On the road around the southern end of the airport I spotted the double tail of the AN-225, otherwise known as the largest airplane in the world. Originally built to carry the Russian space shuttle on it's back, it is now used to carry very large cargo loads around the world. It has a maximum takeoff weight of about 1.32 million pounds, which is 50% heavier than a fully loaded C-5A (according to this article).
I was able to go out a couple of years ago when it made an appearance at RDU and watched it takeoff at about midnight in the rain. Below are a couple of pictures I took of it while it was sitting on the cargo ramp at CLT. I've also included a video of it taking off from runway 36C at CLT yesterday. Too bad I wasn't there to watch it take off.
