ANT-20 Maxim Gorky

The ANT-20 Maxim Gorky was a Soviet propaganda plane constructed in 1934. The largest plane in the world, the Maxim Gorky was designed and named after the famous Russian Realist writer by Soviet aircraft constructor Andrei Tupolyov. The plane had eight engines and a wing span of more than two hundred feet; it weighed forty-two tons, seated eighty passengers and was controlled by eight crew members. This wonder of Soviet technology and the subject of a special jubilee issue of USSR in Construction, the Maxim Gorky did not last long. On 18 May 1935, it crashed to the ground following a mid-air collision with another plane.