The 13 Biggest Planes in the World Are True Feats of Engineering
With wingspans longer than football fields, and payload capacities that can support blue whales, it’s amazing these big boys can even get off the ground.
The marvel of flight never ceases to amaze, and the spectacle is that much more unbelievable when the aircraft are longer than Olympic swimming pools, heavier than the world’s biggest tanks, and taller than five-story buildings. From NASA’s go-to Super Guppy to the enormous 747 Dreamlifter, we’ve compiled a list (in no particular order) of the biggest planes in the world that are flying today.
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Aero Spaceline’s Super Guppy
A guppy might be prey, but the Super Guppyis a predator. The bloated aircraft has been retired by every institution in the world except for one: NASA. The U.S. space agency finds the Guppy’s wide dimensions perfect for transporting spacecraft and rocket components.
The first Super Guppy was constructed from a ballooned fuselage taken from a Boeing C-97 Stratofreighter, which first flew in 1965. The turboprop cargo plane was largely replaced by the Airbus Beluga for large and awkwardly shaped cargo delivery, but as long as NASA still has a use for the Super Guppy, it will continue to baffle people in the sky—and NASA loves the Super Guppy.
Lockheed C-5 Galaxy
With a payload capacity of almost 135 tons, the C-5 Galaxy is the largest aircraft routinely operated by the U.S. military. The Air Force announced it was reactivating the monster airlifter in May 2017, and as of 2019, it was considering turning the plane into a massive ambulance—basically a hospital in the sky.
The C-5 has enough cargo space to carry two M1 Abrams tanks, 16 Humvees, three Black Hawks, or a variety of other vehicles. Without cargo, the C-5 can fly up to 7,000 miles without refueling, making it the longest-range military airlifter in the world. When the Air Force needs a lot of tonnage moved quickly, it turns to the C-5.
Boeing 747 Dreamlifter
In the 2000s, Boeing found it needed a cargo plane with an enormous amount of storage to transport components for the 787 Dreamliner, which has parts made all over the world. The solution was to take its biggest plane, the 747, and build a custom cargo hold around it.
Read More Here:50 Years On, Boeing’s 747 Is Fighting for Survival
At 65,000 cubic feet, the Dreamlifter has the largest cargo hold in the world, capable of carrying three times the volume of a 747-400F freighter. The four Dreamlifters Boeing made also use the longest cargo loader in the world, and can haul payloads up to 125 tons.
Here’s another monster designed and built by the Antonov Design Bureau. The An-124 Ruslan, operated by the Russian Air Force, is the largest military aircraft in the world. For almost 30 years after its introduction in 1984, the An-124 (NATO reporting name: Condor) was the largest and heaviest cargo aircraft in the world, besides the single An-225. The 747-8F overtook the An-124 in 2011.
With a reported payload capacity of 165 tons, the An-124 can haul even more than the C-5 Galaxy, though its range isn’t as long. A surviving engineering triumph of the Soviets, the An-124 continues to fly airlifting missions for Russia.
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