The largest aeroplane in the world: wingspan, weight and passengers
No single aircraft is biggest on every measure. The Stratolaunch Roc has the widest wingspan, 117.35 metres. The Antonov An-225 held the take-off weight record at 640 tonnes, and was destroyed in 2022. The Airbus A380 is the largest passenger aeroplane.
The largest aeroplane in the world depends on what you measure
Size has at least three meanings, and a different aircraft answers each.
| Measure | Aircraft | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wingspan | Stratolaunch Roc | 117.35 m (385 ft) | Guinness World Records |
| Take-off weight | Antonov An-225 Mriya, destroyed 2022 | 640 tonnes | Guinness World Records |
| Passenger aeroplane | Airbus A380 | Certified for up to 853 seats | Airbus |
Widest wingspan: the Stratolaunch Roc
Guinness World Records lists the Scaled Composites Model 351 Stratolaunch, known as Roc, as the largest aircraft by wingspan: 117.35 metres, or 385 feet. It's a twin-fuselage aircraft that first flew on 13 April 2019 from the Mojave Air and Space Port in California, built as a carrier for launching rockets at altitude. Stratolaunch's own page calls Roc the world's largest fixed-wing aircraft by wingspan and gives its take-off weight as 1.3 million pounds. That is lighter than the An-225's 640 tonnes, which Guinness also gives as 1.41 million pounds, and it's why wingspan and weight give different answers.
Heaviest: the Antonov An-225, destroyed in 2022
Guinness World Records lists the An-225 Mriya as the largest aircraft by weight, at 640 tonnes maximum take-off weight after its floor was strengthened in 2000 and 2001, up from the 600 tonnes it was built for. For scale, the same page gives a Boeing 747-400's maximum take-off weight as 396.89 tonnes.
The aircraft no longer exists. Smithsonian Magazine reported that Ukrainian officials said it was destroyed on 27 February 2022, during the fourth day of Russia's invasion, at an airfield near Kyiv where it was being maintained. The same report says construction of a second An-225 stopped in 1994. A post from the @Ukraine account, embedded in the same report, says "We will rebuild the plane."
Largest passenger aeroplane: the Airbus A380
Airbus calls the A380 the world's largest passenger airliner. Airbus's December 2021 facts and figures give the length as 72.7 metres and the wingspan as 79.8 metres, and say the aircraft is certified for up to 853 seats. The 853 is a certification ceiling, not what an airline fits. How the parts of an airliner this size share the work is set out in the parts of an aircraft.
Is the Airlander the largest aircraft?
Not as an aeroplane. Hybrid Air Vehicles, which builds the Airlander, says on its own site that it blends technologies from aeroplanes and airships to create its aircraft. That makes it a hybrid, so the aeroplane records above don't apply to it.
Fastest and highest, in brief
The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird is the world's fastest jet-propelled aircraft, according to the National Air and Space Museum. How fast planes fly has its record flight and the airliner figures.
Altitude records belong to experimental aircraft, not passenger flights. How high planes fly gives the official record and the UK transition altitude.
Seen one, photographed one
If you photographed an aircraft at a runway fence, types of aircraft shows which legal category it falls in, and the sky has the rest of the reading. Aircraft art styles explained covers how a photograph turns into artwork.
