As the largest plane of its day, the Tupolev ANT-20 Maxim Gorky dominated the Soviet skies in the 1930s with eight powerful engines.

The plane carried an impressive array of equipment, which included a powerful radio called "Voice from the Sky", printing machinery, radio stations, a photo lab, a film projector with sound for showing movies in flight, a library and much more. For the first time in aviation history, this aircraft was also equipped with a ladder, which would fold itself and become a part of the floor. In another first for aviation, the aircraft used not only direct current, but alternating current of 120 volts.

The giant aircraft set a number of world records for payload carrying capacity.