Aircraft Size

I've been thinking and it's been a while since I've actually taken a look at the following.

The KM-1 Kaspian Sea Monster to me may perhaps be the biggest, if not one of the biggest aircraft ever flown. It is a non-production aircraft from the 1970's.

What was the largest aircraft to ever have flown?

I believe that the Kaspian measured somewhere about 340 feet long.(I can't verify)

The A380 is only 239 feet long and the An-225 Cossack is only 275 feet long.(Simple google search yields these results from Airbus website and www.globalaircraft.org respectively)

Shattered OUT...

The super guppy.



It's not the biggest in the dimensions your after - but as far as cargo hold goes I'm pretty sure it's up in the top 3

Edit: BTW the Hindenburg zepplin is the largest

The airship was 804 feet long and had a maximum diameter of 135 feet. Passengers were afforded spectacular views from the 200-foot-long promenade deck. Four 1,050-hp Daimler-Benz diesel engines powered the ship to a top speed of 82 mph (cutting the trans-Atlantic travel time by more than two-thirds. The ship had a capacity of 7,062,000 cubic feet of hydrogen in 16 cells. The ship could lift 112 tons beyond its own weight.

link



The An-225 Cossack is the largest airplane.

[edit on 2/9/2007 by Now_Then]

reply to post by Now_Then


Well it depends what your using for your definition.

Here is a link I use to direct people to the largest powered heavier then air aircraft.
www.aerospaceweb.org...


[edit on 22/08/06 by Canada_EH]

As far as I know the Hughes H2 (Spruce Goose) is the largest in terms of wing span. However in all other terms the Antanov AN-225 Myria is the largest.

Jensy

Does the Kaspian Sea Monster not have the largest length of them all?

The Hindenburg was an Airship I'd like to exclude airships. Otherwise yeah this conversation would be over at the Hindenburg .

Shattered OUT...

Guess it all depends whether you class Ekranoplans (spelling?) as aircraft. If you do then it's probably the largest.

I always think of them having more in common with hovercraft though. But thats a whole new topic I guess.

Why shouldn't Ekranoplanes be classed as aircraft?

They have all the recognizable features of an aircraft and operate as an aircraft. They maintain no contact with the surface at any time during flight otherwise they would suffer massive failure to fly.

I mean the only thing different about Ekranoplanes is the principle in which they operate under. Instead of flying at higher altitudes, they operate on ground effect. All aircraft still experience ground effect, the Ekranoplanes merely exploit the effect to its full advantages.

Enter the DARPA Pelican ULTRA.

Shattered OUT...

Spruce goose tallest plane and longest wingspan, just not longest. Although it only flew one time and got 70ft off of the ground.

here's a good pic for comparison on wikipedia....

maybe this fixes the link?


edit to fix link

[edit on 3-9-2007 by wenfieldsecret]

If anyone here lives in Oregon I really suggest going to the Evergreen Aviation Museum, they have this hanger full of probably 40-50 aircraft and of course the Spruce Goose, and the whole time you're under the Spruce. It's friggin huge I think that even though it isnt the biggest, arguably 3-4th I think it is the most amazing, it's old and made of wood! Although it didnt fly it is still amazing to see it in person!


img.photobucket.com...
img.photobucket.com...

Originally posted by wenfieldsecret
here's a good pic for comparison on wikipedia....

maybe this fixes the link?


edit to fix link

[edit on 3-9-2007 by wenfieldsecret]

You should really check what info other people have posted first

reply to post by Canada_EH


my apolgies....i must have just skimmed over your post.......

well, thers another hybrid concept of plane +ekranoplan be-2500

en.wikipedia.org...

Shatterd skies is right. Its a airplane, it has wings and it achieves flight. Just because it dont fly at 1000's of feet doesnt mean it isnt a plane. It flies in ground effect which all planes produce ground effect closer to the ground. Thats why as you get closer to the ground while landing the plane wants to float on you and its kinda hard to sit her down. Ground effect is a cussion of air that is created while the aircraft is close to the ground. Also the biggest plane is hard to tell, because what we have to know is what is sonsidered to be the qualifications of the biggest. The heavyest plane is the AN-225, as in the plane with the biggest wingspan is the Hercules....aka the spruce goose. And the Sprucs Goose did fly and reached a altitude of 70 feet. The plane could fly today if they wanted it to. But there was no reason in flying it still and they didbt produce any because the government cancelled the project. I heard somewhere that they were gonna build a full size replica of the Hercules and use turbo prop engines....if they did she would fly perfect.

Originally posted by wannabflyboy
Shatterd skies is right. Its a airplane, it has wings and it achieves flight. Just because it dont fly at 1000's of feet doesnt mean it isnt a plane. It flies in ground effect which all planes produce ground effect closer to the ground. Thats why as you get closer to the ground while landing the plane wants to float on you and its kinda hard to sit her down. Ground effect is a cussion of air that is created while the aircraft is close to the ground.

You are started on the right path. That is the simple version of ground effect though another one of the main reasons for the increase in lift is the reduction of the wing tip vortices which are caused by induced drag of the wing tips. When the aircraft reaches about a the hight of the wing plus one half it incounters ground effect as the vortices are reduced in strength and an increase in lift hence the tendancy to "hover".

Compressablity which you touched on the 2nd part of what is generically called ground effect. The neat story behind proving its existence was Chuck Yeager flying out in the nevada lakebed at high speed in a T-33 and at low level and trying to push the nose of his airplane into the lakebed. Or at least thats how the "story" goes in his book.

Yea i decided to tell the easy story of ground effect. LOL. Almost everytime i land once about a wings length away from the ground the plane wants to keep floating and is kinda hard sometime to get it through the ground effect. Ive had planes ive flown with a bigger wingarea that were even harder to get out of ground effect when landing. Man, now i wanna take the plane up and go have fun. I like flying in ground effect on floats, well i guess water effect in that case. We should have a Abovetopsecret.com fly-in for all us pilots on here.

I still have the definitive answer to the OP's question.

The wording said aircraft so the largest to date is the LZ 129 Hindenburg. (shame I'm not an Auzzie ~ then I could of got away with saying the flaming Hindenburg! sorry )

at 245 m (804 ft) long and 41 m (135 ft) in diameter, longer than three Boeing 747s placed end-to-end, longer than four Goodyear Blimps end-to-end, and only 24 m (78 ft) shorter than the Titanic.

[edit on 5/9/2007 by Now_Then]

I also did say to exclude the Hindenburg as the Hindenburg's construction is of an airship.

It may be classed as an aircraft, but it is an airship.

Shattered OUT...

Originally posted by wannabflyboy
We should have a Abovetopsecret.com fly-in for all us pilots on here.

Wouldn't be that bad of an ideas if you ask me if game. I'm also considering starting to create some art work as well in my spare time since I actually work as a graphic designer so any one with cool ideas of old aviation company logos of WW2 nose art they would like to see recreated drop me a message.

reply to post by Now_Then
Technically an Aussie would pronounce the word "flamin", as we tend to drop the "G". However this would be termed classic "strine", so its use today would be somewhat diminished. No doubt some fellow Aussies will debate this.

LEE.

[edit on 5-9-2007 by thebozeian]