In the world of Slavic folk tales there are giants in Ukraine but as aviators the ones we are interested are the giants that the fabled aircraft designer Oleg Antonov designed. This is his story.

The OKA1 glider

Antonov at the Leningrad Polytechnic

The OKA38 Stork

The An-2

The An-12 Cub

The An-24 Coke

The vast An-22 Cock

The huge An-124 Condor

The flight deck of the An-124

The mighty Mryia, An-225, carrying a Buran project space shuttle

The destruction of a dream, the Mryia was a victim of the Russian invaders who recently attacked Ukraine

Oleg Antonov

Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the Antonov Design Bureau, the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute, the Central Design Bureau for Gliders, Arpingstone, Igor Dvurekov, Dmitriy Pichugin, Toshi Aoki, Yevgeny Pashnin, Vasiliy Kob and Дизайнер: А.Безменов.