World's biggest plane may finally be finished after 30 years of gathering dust

It will cost about £270million to complete the plane (Image: Sergey Dolzhenko/EPA/REX/Shutterstock)

Manufacturers may finally finish building the world's largest ever plan that's been gathering dust in an aircraft hanger since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The Antonov An-255, which is around 70 per cent complete, has been kept in storage in Ukraine for the past three decades.

The Antonov-225 Mriya plane can carry 250 tonnes of cargo (Image: Reuters)

The project started in 1989 but came to a halt in 1994, three years after the Soviet Union collapsed and funding dried up.

However, aircraft manufacturer Antonov is now hoping to raise the necessary cash to complete the plane.

The An-255 was designed to help the Soviet Union's space programme (Image: Sovfoto/Universal Images Group/REX

The company needs about £270million to finish the aircraft, which would be a larger version of the only An-255 ever built, named the Mriya.

The Mriya, which means 'dream' in Ukrainian, was constructed in 1988 and is still the biggest and heaviest plane in history.

The mammoth plane is the biggest in the world (Image: Andrew McCaren/LNP)

It is able to carry a spacecraft, 10 tanks or 30 cars - and has a standard crew of 22 people.