"The global flight time of Flight B4143 has been postponed to December,"
When the hot search list was released on November 27, aviation enthusiasts at home and abroad howled in dismay.
The global flight challenge, originally scheduled for the end of November, was postponed because both An-1250 planes had tasks to perform.
Flight B4043 needed to transport the modified rocket body of New Yuan-2A and the H2 spacecraft, so the launch mission of the Lightning Number had to be entrusted to B4143.
At a large military airport in Quanzhou, B4143 landed, carrying a shiny shuttle-shaped fuel tank that was 55 meters long and 8 meters in diameter at its widest, next to which, on the back of an Il-76, was the Lightning Number with its nose pointed skywards.
Androff and Dou Ping supervised the workers as they hoisted the Lightning Number on the back of the An-1250 and carefully installed the fuel pipes.