Since the advent of aeroplanes humans have tried to make it bigger larger and more powerful, right from the start planes and flying objects like Heidenburg blimp have always made history. Here are some real monster size biggest airplanes from history.
The Wright Brother who made the first flying machine, are always regarded as the father of aeroplane designs, but Gustave Whitehead, Alexander Feodorovich Mozhaiski, Clement Ader, and many others should get a share of the fame, too. Though it was not long before the skies were flooded with these amazing flying machines.
It was after the first world war that these machines were recognized as war machines rather than just airplanes. One monster plane of that time was Igor Sikorsky’s Ilya Murometz, a huge improvement over his legendary Russky Vitaz, the first four engine aircraft. But the Ilya Murometz didn’t begin as a beast of the skies. It was earlier designed as a passenger flier, which had options of electric lights, hot steam baths, with a glass floor, though later they were turned into bombers.
And a really huge Russian monster plane from the early 1930s: Ka-7 (more info), named after engineer Kalinin, not the famous political figure.
During wars the aeroplanes were larger and more mammoth in size. Here are some of the World’s largest planes like the concept from Norman Bel Geddes Airliner Number 4, which had 9 decks of luxury hotel accommodation, bars and engine rooms.
Even the wings had rooms, but probably the designer did not think what would happen when the machine would be in air. Bel thought it would easily accommodate, 606 passengers and bring them across the Atlantic.
Here is one of the most amazing concept plane which came from Modern Mechanics 1931.
As you can see it had vertical propellers for lift and several horizontal propellers for forward movement.
Here are some realistic designs from Handley Page HP42 , it is four engine powered machine, with two wings and has an impressive record of no crash while being used as an airliner. Here are the pictures of the aeroplane which was used by Imperial Airways London. The aeroplane must have been luxurious.
In the year 1936 came a much better looking Aircraft from Boeing Stratoliner which was called “Whale” because of its large size. It was an effective machine with the powerful engines and also had the technological advancements over its predecessors. The silver coloured plane resembled a whale rather than a bird.
In the year 1947, came another huge and legendary plane called the H4 Hercules. It was a complete failure and had only one maiden flight in 1947, where it flew just a mile at the height of 70 feet. It was thought that the machine would be a revolutionary military transport airplane. It was created by Howard Hughes.
Here are the stats of H4 Hercules
This aircraft was ordered by US Government during the Second World War for transporting cargo, armed troops and tanks. It is one of the largest plane ever designed and is still the world’s largest flying boat. It has the record of the world’s largest wingspan of 97.5 meters and at a height of 24.2 meters, and the largest aircraft ever made from wood, the wingspan was probably the major cause of its downfall the larger the wings the more flexible they become and its hard to keep them straight while flying hence they come down by their own weight.
Some German planes by Nazi’s Blohm + Voss BV 222 and Voss BV 238 etc
Germans as we know were way ahead of their time during the time of Hitler. Here are som of the flying machine’s which might not look the most beautiful but were large in size for sure.
Messerschmitt Me 321 was one large cargo plane from the German’s here are some of its specifications to help you get the size of this huge airplane
Crew: three
Capacity: 130 troops
Length: 28.15 m (92 ft 4 in)
Wingspan: 55 m (180 ft 5 in)
Height: 10.15 m (33 ft 4 in)
Wing area: 300 m² (3,228 sq ft)
Empty weight: 12,400 kg (27,300 lb)
Loaded weight: 34,400 kg (75,800 lb)
Later came the B29 Superfortress, it was a huge plane but it became really hard for the pilots to get it heigher than 40,000 feet. But once it reached there nothing could catch it with a speed of 350 mph. It was on active duty during the Korean War.
B 36 Peacemaker
After the arrival of jet powered planes, the aircraft designs changed and designers started to think really big. Machines like B 52 Bombers were designed which had 8 engines, but before that came machines like Convair B 36 Peacemaker.
Above is the picture of a B52 Stratosphere which is still used by US Army in a modified form. The airplane is mainly used for cluster bombing, it is a long range sub sonic, jet powered machine. It was built by Boeing. It can carry upto 70,000 pounds(32000 Kg) of weapons.
The Airbus A300-600ST (Super Transporter) or Beluga:
Some non military planes with the biggest size include the Airbus A300-600 ST (Super transporter) or Beluga. They remind of Megamind. It is modified to carry oversize cargo the upper portion of the pilot’s cockpit opens allowing cargo to easily load and drop.
Specifications of the Beluga
Measurement A300-600ST
Length 56.15 metres (184 ft 3 in)
Span 44.84 metres (147 ft 1 in)
Height 17.24 metres (56 ft 7 in)
Wing area 258.80 square metres (2,785.7 sq ft)
Fuselage diameter 3.95 metres (13.0 ft)
7.1 metres (23 ft 4 in) in cargo compartment
Weight empty 86 t
Maximum take-off weight 155 t
Range (40 ton payload) 2,779 kilometres (1,501 nmi)
Range (26 ton payload) 4,632 kilometres (2,501 nmi)
Engines GE CF6-80C2A8
Cargo capacity 47 t
Cargo volume 1,210 cubic metres (43,000 cu ft)
Cockpit crew Two
Now comes the C5 Galaxy, which looks huge to give you an idea of how big it is, it has a wing span of 222 ft 9 in (67.89 m). It can take in a load of about 180,000 pounds which is about 90 tons. It was the largest plane during the late 1960’s.
Antonov An255
In the modern times the biggest plane flying is Antonov An255 with a wingspan of 88m, 84m in length it was designed by Antonov Design Bureau in 1980’s, jointly by Ukraine and Russia. It is the world’s heaviest aircraft with the weight of 285,000kg and a top speed of 850 km/hr.
Here is a chart which shows comparison between largest planes
On the other hand when it comes to passenger aviation, Airbus A-380 is currently the largest in size: this image which shows its comparative size among other planes in the airport –
