Which is the biggest passenger aircraft ever built?
The Hindenburg was the largest passenger aircraft, ever. Diameter was 135.2 ft., length was 810.4 ft. Gas capacity was 200,000 cubic m. It’s successor, the Graf Zeppelin II, LZ 130, was 6.4 feet shorter, but was lighter-weight and had more lifting capacity. Design on a super Zeppelin, the LZ 131, had started but was aborted when WWII began. That would have been the largest aircraft ever to hit the skies. Period. I doubt EADS or Boeing could out-do the 135′ diameter and 810′ length of the LZ 129, let alone the LZ 130 or LZ 131. Not with a profitable jet, anyway. Not with the current price of aviation fuel… (edit addition: The new Zeppelin NT, which carries paying passengers, is 75 m in length, compared to 73 m for the A-380. This compares to 247 m for the Hindenburg…..
The Spruce Goose is the largest AIRPLANE ever built. It was intended to transport up to 750 troops or one Sherman tank. It flew only one short test flight before the project was cancelled. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hughes_H-4_… The Hindenburg and the Graff Zeppelin were the largest passenger AIRCRAFT (of any type) ever built. They carried 50 passengers and 40 crew. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LZ_129_Hind… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LZ_130_Graf… The largest passenger AIRPLANE to actually enter commercial passenger service is the Airbus A380.
