How to move a 200-ton spectrometer across Europe

Re:How to move a 200-ton spectrometer across Europe by gambiting on Thursday July 24, 2014 @04:13PM (#8081905)

I never understood why, if the AN-225 is so insanely useful, only one has ever been build. Surely there would be economic benefit in building another few?

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Re:How to move a 200-ton spectrometer across Europe by kteofanidis on Friday July 25, 2014 @03:47AM (#8084154)

The An-124 is the useful large cargo plane. The 225 is more or less a larger version of that for specialized cargo that is rarely needed thus one being enough to service the entire world. If the demand was there I'm sure a second one could be finished quite quickly.

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Re:How to move a 200-ton spectrometer across Europe by btgeekboy on Friday July 25, 2014 @03:24AM (#8084106)

Quote the first paragraph of the linked article: "A second airframe was partially built; its completion was halted because of lack of funding and interest."

Seems it's not so insanely useful that a second one is needed.

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Re:How to move a 200-ton spectrometer across Europe by PeterisP on Thursday July 24, 2014 @04:51PM (#8082112)

If even that single one isn't fully booked, how would multiple planes with 10% utilization each justify their building costs?

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