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The Dinosaurs Of The Aircraft Industry

Here are some of the biggest planes in the world. One can only wonder how these mammoths get off the ground. Its hard to tell their actual size from these pictures but these planes are huge. If you could stand next to a plane like the Spruce Goose, you would feel truly insignificant. The Antonov AN 225 transports things like the space shuttle and that looks pretty small mounted on top of it and we have all heard about the B52 for years, yet I bet we never realized how enormous it is.

	Hughes Aircraft Co. designed and built the HK-1 in the 1940s. Built of laminated birch, the Goose is the largest airplane. It has a length of 220 feet and a wingspan of 320 feet. The Goose was powered by eight 3,000-horsepower engines. It flew only once, for a minute Nov. 2, 1947, with Hughes in the pilot's seat. Picture Source: U.S. Army
	Antonov AN 225 Specifications Type: Heavy Transport Power plants: Six ZMKB Progress Lotarev D-18T turbofans with 229.50kN of thrust each Max take-Off Weight: 600,000kg Max Payload (internal or external): 250,000kg - 275, 000kg? Wingspan: 88.4m Length: 84m Speed: 800km/h Height: 18.1m Cargo Hold: Length: 35.97m; Width: 6.4m; Height: 4.39m Range with Max Payload: 4,500km Range with Max Fuel: 15,400km Crew: 7 This is a one of a kind airplane. Originally built to haul the Russian space shuttle it can now be rented out to haul huge loads. This is now the biggest transport plane in the world as of January 2003. Picture Source: NASA
	The C130 is a military transport. While not as large as the above two planes, it is still a very big plane. General Characteristics Primary Function: Tactical and intratheater airlift Contractor: Lockheed Martin Aeronautical Systems Company Power Plant: Four Allison T56-A-15 turboprops; 4,300 horsepower, each engine Length: 97 feet, 9 inches (29.3 meters) Height: 38 feet, 3 inches (11.4 meters) Wingspan: 132 feet, 7 inches (39.7 meters) Cargo Compartment: Length, 41 feet (12.5 meters); width, 108 inches (2.74 meters); height, 9 feet (2.74 meters). Rear ramp (one pallet position); length, 88 inches (2.23 meters); width, 108 inches (2.74 meters); height, 76 inches (1.93 meters) Speed: 374 mph (Mach 0.57) at 20,000 feet (6,060 meters) Ceiling: 33,000 feet (10,000 meters) with 45,000 pounds (17,716 kilograms) payload Maximum Takeoff Weight: 155,000 pounds (69,750 kilograms) Range: 2,356 miles (2,049 nautical miles) with maximum payload; 2,500 miles (2,174 nautical miles) with 25,000 pounds (11,250 kilograms) cargo; 5,200 miles (4,522 nautical miles) with no cargo Crew: Five (two pilots, a navigator, flight engineer and loadmaster); up to 92 troops or 64 paratroops or 74 litter patients or six standard freight pallets with a maximum of 45,000 pounds of cargo. Unit Cost: $14.1 million (1996 dollars) Picture Source: NASA
	C141 General Characteristics Primary Function: Cargo and troop transport Contractor: Lockheed-Georgia Co. Power Plant: Four Pratt & Whitney TF33-P-7 turbofan engines Thrust: 20,250 pounds, each engine Wingspan: 160 feet (48.7 meters) Length: 168 feet, 4 inches (51 meters) Height: 39 feet, 3 inches (11.9 meters) Cargo Compartment: Height, 9 feet 1 inch (2.77 meters); length, 93 feet 4 inches (28.45 meters); width, 10 feet 3 inches (3.12 meters) Cargo Door: width, 10.25 feet (3.12 meters); height, 9.08 feet (2.76 meters) Speed: 500 mph (Mach 0.74) at 25,000 feet Ceiling: 41,000 feet (12,496 meters) at cruising speed Range: Unlimited with in-flight refueling Maximum Takeoff Weight: 323,100 lbs (146,863 kilograms) Load: Either 200 troops, 155 paratroops, 103 litters and 14 seats, or 68,725 lbs (31,239 kilograms) of cargo Unit Cost: $42.3 million (FY98 constant dollars) Picture Source: U.S. Air Force
	Ilyushin-76. This is the largest fire fighting aircraft in the world. It holds three times the water of the biggest U.S. firefighting plane. Although it is huge and it capacity is huge, it is not a popular plane for fighting fires. The complaints range from too fast, must fly too high, needs a big crew to its systems for fightings is not sophisticated enough since it only drops treated water. Picture Source: Pravda.RU
	Russian Tu-160 Blackjack. The Tupolev Tu-160 Blackjack is over 25% larger than the American B1A bomber, and can hold the same speed and the same range. No Large Image Available Picture Source: PravdaRU
	C5a Galaxy. It's six stories high, as long as a football field. There is no piece of military equipment it can't haul, including a 74 ton bridge. It can hold 6 Apache Helicopters or two 65 Ton Tanks. General Characteristics Length 247.8 ft / 75.53 m Height 65.1 ft / 19.84 m Wing span 222.8 ft / 67.91 m Wing area 6,200 sq ft / 576.0 sq m Wing sweep 25 degrees High speed cruise 0.79 Mach Long range cruise speed 0.77 Mach Fuel capacity 332,500 lb / 150,819 kg Engines Four General Electric TF-39-1C Turbofan Engines, each with 41,100 pounds of Thrust -- 43,000 pounds with Additional Thrust Rating (ATR). Maximum ramp gross weight 840,000 lb / 381,018 kg Picture Source: U.S. Air Force
	B52. It over 50 years old but its still a massive plane with a wingspan of 185 ft, length of over 159 ft and weighing nearly 220 metric tons at full load, yet still capable of speeding along at 650 mph with it's eight Pratt & Whitney TF33-P-3/103 turbofans mounted in groups of two, and able to fly up to 50,000 ft altitude. Range is equally massive at 8,800 miles without being refueled. Picture Source: U.S. Air Force

The planes above may soon be dwarfed by the new passenger planes that are on the drawing boards. There is even talk of planes that will be able to hold a thousand passengers or more. It seems that Air Bus and Boeing are competing for new plane contracts using opposite tactics. Air Bus will build bigger planes that will hold huge amounts of passengers while Boeing will concentrate on planes that offer better fuel consumption. It is unknown which strategy will win out but in the meantime look for larger and larger commercial planes.