first prize goes fairly to Ukrainian Antonov An-225 Mriya which is acknowledged
to be the world’s largest plane up to date. The plane made its first flight in
1988, on December 21. This really huge thing was built exceptionally for
military purposes, in particular for carrying the Buran orbiter (Russian Space
Shuttle). The developers of An-225 aircraft used a base of An-124 and increased
sufficiently its engine capacity. 6 engines are used in the An-225 instead of 4
in An-124 as well as twin nail. The aircraft is the heaviest up to date: its
maximum takeover weight is more than 640 tons. Today there is only one An-225
in service.
second place in top-5 of the world’s largest planes takes Airbus A380F with the
first flight performed just recently, in 2005, April 23. The aircraft places
525 seats and is considered to be the worlds’ largest passenger airplane ever
known and made. This twin deck, high capacity wide body airliner is a really
beautiful and potent thing.
third place in the scale of the top-5 goes to Boeing 747-8 which with is length
of about 77 meters is considered to be the longest airliner in the world up to
date. This intercontinental airbus places 467 seats and is a high-capacity
machine offering more payloads, more range and more fuel efficiency.
next in the top-5 scale is Boeing 747-400 ER, the one from the family of
Boeings possessing the major development and the most sold one. It has seats
for 524 passengers and features all-new modern interior.
Ruslan. Up to this moment Ruslan is considered to be world’s second heaviest
cargo aircraft and the biggest heavy lifter ever made.