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?
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.
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.
