This Is the Biggest Airplane in History

The world’s biggest airplane was just destroyed. Ukraine’s Antonov AN-225, built three decades ago, was destroyed at an airport as the Russians advanced on Kyiv. However, whether it was the world’s biggest airplane is subject to debate.

Was it larger than any passenger plane ever flown? Howard Hughes’s “Spruce Goose,” or Hughes H-4 Hercules, was only flown once on November 2, 1947. It had the largest wingspan of any plane in history until it was surpassed by the Scaled Composites Stratolaunch in 2019. However, the Scaled Composites Stratolaunch was a prototype.

Should prototypes be included? Or planes that only had one model built? Should the record be based on wingspan or on weight? The race for the largest plane was most public a decade ago, when Boeing and Airbus endeavored to see which company would build the passenger just that would hold the most people.

Science and technology website RankRed tried to settle the argument. Even its methodology opens at least one question. Its experts wrote: “According to both the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), a large aircraft is an aircraft with a maximum take-off weight or mass of more than 5,700 kg.” However, they pointed out that perhaps helicopters should be included.
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RankRed decided to make wingspan and maximum takeoff weight the primary measures. Engine power becomes a component. The ability to take off with an extremely heavy load depends on that as much as anything else.

Some of the planes included in the RankRed list of the largest ever built first flew in the 1950s. Others are just a few years old. In some cases, only a few of the planes on the list were ever manufactured.

The largest plane ever built was the Bartini Beriev VVA-14, first manufactured in the 1970s. It first flew in 1972. The development of the Bartini Beriev VVA-14 was funded by the Soviets. Among other advanced features of the plane, it could take off over the water. Only two prototypes were built, and the decision was to ground them permanently in 1982. It was 123 meters (134 yards) long, had a wingspan of 156 meters, and a maximum takeoff weight of 2,500,000 kg (2,755 tons).
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