• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

An-248

On 01 April 2010 it was reported that Ukrainian Aviation Scientific-Technical Complex named after Antonov develops the An-248 passenger freighter version of the AN-225 "Mriya", which would become a rival to the European Airbus A380 airliner - the largest passenger airliner in the world, according to the press service of the Ministry of Transport and Communications.

AN-225 "Mriya" - extra high-duty transport aircraft development Kiev ASTC Antonov. The plane was designed and built in the second half of the 1980s. Now AN-225 performs commercial freight transportation as part of the airline "Antonov Airlines". Also carried out the design work on the use of aircraft as a flying launch complex for aerospace systems. Airbus A380 - wide-double-decker passenger jet, created by European concern "Airbus SAS" may make non-stop flights by up to 15.2 thousand kilometers. Capacity - 525 passengers in three classes, 853 in odnoklassovoy passenger configuration. Today A380 is the largest passenger airliner in the world. Unit cost - 327.4 million dollars.

"We now have the A-380 has almost no competitors. This unoccupied niche. We have closely followed the development and operation of the first results of the A-380 and decided that our An-248 has no less potential. All the developments are almost ready. Airplane flies. To overstaffed passenger cargo ship in need of three to four months. new model will be called the An-248, by analogy with the AN-148. We believe that she has a great future ", - the press service quoted the Ministry of Transport General Designer of Antonov ASTC Dmitry Kivu.

Preliminary talks have shown that AN-248 will be primarily interested in the companies of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE. Some have also expressed interest and some major Russian companies. According to project data, the An-248 can carry up to 715 passengers in a single-class layout and up to 605 in the configuration with individual personal luxury cabanas for VIPs. Cost of one such ship shall not exceed $ 280 million.

April Fools Day or All Fools Day is the name given to the 1st of April, in allusion to the custom of playing practical jokes on friends and neighbors on that day, or sending them on fools' errands. The origin oí this custom has been much disputed, and many ludicrous solutions have been suggested, e.g. that it is a farcical commemoration of Christ being sent from Annas to Caiaphas, from Caiaphas to Pilate, from Pilate to Herod, and from Herod back again to Pilate, the crucifixion having taken place about the 1st oí April.

What seems certain is that it is in some way or other a relic of those once universal festivities held at the vernal equinox, which, beginning on old New Year's day, the 25th of March, ended on the 1st of April. This view gains support from the fact that the exact counterpart of April-fooling is found to have been an immemorial custom in India. The festival of the spring equinox is there termed the feast of Huli, the last day of which is the 3ist of March, upon which the chief amusement is the befooling of people by sending them on fruitless errands.

It has been plausibly suggested that Europe derived its April-fooling from the French. They were the first nation to adopt the reformed calendar, Charles IX in 1564 decreeing that the year should begin with the 1st of January. Thus the New Year's gifts and visits of felicitation which had been the feature of the 1st of April became associated with the ûrst day of January, and those who disliked the change were fair butts for those wits who amused themselves by sending mock presents and paying calls of pretended ceremony on the 1st of April.

Though the ist of April appears to have been anciently observed in Great Britain as a general festival, it was apparently not until the beginning of the 18th Century that the making of April-fools was a common custom. In Scotland the custom was known as "hunting ihe gowk," i.e. the cuckoo, and April-fools were "April gowks," the cuckoo being there, as it is in most lands, a term of contempt. In France the person befooled is known as poisson d'avril. This has been explained from the association of ideas arising from the fact that in April the sun quits the zodiacal sign of the fish. A far more natural explanation would seem to be that the April fish would be a young fish and therefore easily caught.