How to explain the uncontrollable desire of man to heaven? A simple desire to learn something new or natural impulses of the soul. But each time my heart aches when a handsome passenger airliner flies overhead.
The paradoxical development of civil aviation was given by the Second World War, when it became necessary to quickly mix long distances not only military personnel, but also civilians during evacuation.
And now, together with thebiggest.ru website, we will take a closer look at the largest passenger aircraft in the world.
10
De Havilland DH.106 Comet
This model may not be one of the major aircraft, but it was the first jet passenger airliner, which was conceived and was created with the aim of transporting passengers, and went into mass production. The era of passenger aircraft construction began. This first aircraft simply earned the right to open a list of large aircraft.
The idea of creating a liner appeared in 1942, and the first flight of the Comet completed on January 9, 1951. The route ran from London to Johannesburg with landings in Rome, Beirut, Khartoum, Entebbe and Livingston. The crew consisted of 4 people, on board the aircraft could take 36 passengers.
After 5 air crashes, the first De Havilland DH.106 Comet project was closed. All subsequent modifications of the "Comet" repeated the first option with minor improvements.
9
Tu-144
On the last day of 1968, the first Soviet supersonic passenger aircraft of Tupolev Design Bureau made its first test flight.
The Soviet airliner was fundamentally different from Concord aircraft. An important difference is the shape and profile of the wing. There were no flaps or wing flaps on the wings. The decrease in speed occurred using the deflected front of the fuselage and the extension of the front wing. At that time, the Tu-144 was a modern navigation system. A system of ejected seats for the crew was provided.
As it turned out later, the aircraft was ultramodern for its time, but had a number of shortcomings. The most resonant catastrophe of the Tu-144 occurred on June 3, 1973 in the French La Bourget. After a series of disasters, the airliner was discontinued.
In 1997, one of the modifications of the Tu-144 was used by NASA as a flying laboratory with the goal of creating a fundamentally new supersonic aircraft of this design. After testing, the Tu-144 model was dismantled.
8
Concorde
One of the two supersonic aircraft in the world, co-created by the British and French. In 1969, the Concorde took off. But only after 7 years of test flights, on January 21, 1976, the plane took on board passengers and made its first commercial flight.
Seven aircraft each were used by leading airlines British Airways and Air France. Over the entire period of operation, and this is almost 27 years old, 3 million passengers were transported by a supersonic airliner. What puts this type of aircraft among the record holders.
In the early 2000s, due to malfunctions in the fuel system and due to external influences, 2 catastrophes of Concord type aircraft occurred. Air France completely abandoned the operation of aircraft. Over time, British Airways also ceased to use this supersonic aircraft in commercial operations. The Concorde had its license for passenger flights revoked.
Concord completed its last flight on November 26, 2003. Thus ended the era of supersonic passenger transport.
7
Boeing 747
The very first heavy, roomy and truly large was the Boeing 747. On February 9, 1969, the aircraft made its first test flight.
Boeing 747 created with two decks. The upper passenger deck is shorter than the main fuselage, which makes the plane the most recognizable in the world. Cabin capacity when divided into classes: with the 3rd division - 366 passengers, with 2 - 452 passengers.
Based on this Boeing, military modifications have been created. One of these transported the Space Shuttle from the assembly site to the Cape Canaveral cosmodrome in an outer dock.
For 36 years, the Boeing 747 was the largest passenger aircraft. In 2005, the leadership passed to the Airbus A380. But the Boeing 747 firmly holds the first position in terms of prevalence and popularity in the world. To date, 1556 copies of this model have been produced.
6
IL-96
In the mid-80s, the Soviet Union began to develop a project to create a large aircraft for medium and long-haul flights. The result of the work was the release of a new modification of the aircraft design bureau Ilyushin Il-96. The first flight was made in 1988, and in 1993 the mass production of the IL-96 began. the liner was the first in Russia (but still of Soviet design) wide-body long-range aircraft.
The assembly of the liner is an all-metal, four-engine and wide-body low-wing. It has swept wings and vertical plumage.
IL-86 can take on board 300 passengers. The flight range without refueling is 9,000 kilometers.
Many IL-96 models have their own names, including the famous pilots: “Valery Chkalov”, “Mikhail Vodopyanov”.
One of Ilyushin’s modifications, namely IL-96-300PU, was for a long time presidential board No. 1. But in 2004, after the flight was canceled due to a collision with birds at the Lisbon airport, this honorable mission was removed from the plane.
5
Airbus A330
And this aircraft in the family of the largest passenger airliners has the most sad statistics. Over the entire use of the A330, 8 aircraft were decommissioned. The aircraft was mainly used in the Asian region and Africa. 4 Airbus A330 aircraft were destroyed as a result of hostilities in India and Libya. 2 crashed and 2 decommissioned due to misuse.
The test flight of the Airbus A330 took place on November 1, 1992. In 1997, the plane made its first flight with passengers on board. Today, with some modifications, this model is used by airlines under the code A330neo.
The aircraft performs both medium and long flights. The maximum range without refueling the aircraft is 13,000 km. The manufacturer, fulfilling the wishes of customers, created a very comfortable lounge.
The aircraft is equipped with two turbofan engines, which allows you to reach speeds of up to 913 km per hour in the air.
4
Boeing 777-300ER
By the criterion of flight range, the Boeing 777-300ER comes out on top in the world. Without refueling, this aircraft can fly 21 601 km.
They began operating this aircraft in 1995. Among the class of passenger liners with twin-engine jet engines, the aircraft is the largest, as it can accommodate from three hundred to five hundred and fifty people in its cabin.
With a rather large mass, almost 250 tons in full gear, the Boeing-777-300ER has a speed of 965 km per hour. Another design feature of this aircraft is the efficiency of engines.
On the basis of this aircraft, the Boeing-777F cargo model and many other modifications were created, the basis of which remains the Boeing-777.
3
Airbus A340-600
Airbus A340-600 is one of the five largest passenger aircraft and belongs to the family of long-haul airliners. Without refueling, the Airbus A340-600 can cover 14 thousand 800 km.
On international and intercontinental airlines, the aircraft began flights in 2002. With a cabin width of 5, 5 meters, the aircraft can take 380 passengers on board. The liner is 75 meters long and has a wingspan of 63 and a half meters.
Over the entire operation period, 97 models of this liner were assembled. In 2011, the Airbus A340-600 was removed from serial production.
By the way, the Airbus A340 model is one of the safest in a special rating published on thebiggest.ru website.
2
Boeing 747-8
In 2005, Boeing launched the Boeing 747-8.
Promising differences from previous models are the elongated fuselage and significant efficiency. Manufacturers improved aerodynamics by changing the sweep of the wing and making it thinner and wider. The shape of the wing allows you to reduce air resistance, which, of course, affects the reduction of fuel consumption.
This model is trusted by the governments of 19 countries that use the Boeing 747-8 for flights of the first persons of the state.
Boeing 747-8 is the largest commercial aircraft built in the United States. And its length of 76.25 m brings it to first place in the world as the longest aircraft.
The Boeing 747-8 also holds the first place in the world on the orders of VIP versions of the aircraft, intended for government officials and world famous politicians.
1
Airbus A380
Airbus A380, which made its first flight in 2005, can rightfully be attributed to the Giant Liner nomination.
Today it is the largest passenger class aircraft. World airlines began to use it for passenger flights in 2007. What brings the plane to the lead? Four jet engines located on the wings, the length of the aircraft is 72 m 70 cm, the wingspan of the airliner is almost 80 meters, the maximum flight range with a full load of 15,400 km. The weight of the aircraft is surprising. Without passengers and cargo, it weighs 277 tons. The aerodynamics of the liner with such a weight is created so optimally that it is quite maneuverable and feels free in airspace.
The flight qualities of the aircraft are improved due to the graphite used in the production of aircraft parts. The wings and fuselage of the passenger liner are made of graphite.
The aircraft provides 853 passenger seats with a single-class configuration, when dividing the cabin by enon, business and first class - 555 passengers can board. For a more convenient location of passengers, the aircraft has 2 decks, so its height is 24 meters.
The development of the A380 project took almost 10 years. And the manufacturer spent 12 billion euros on the creation of the aircraft itself. Only Boeing planes are more expensive in the world.
Today, the Airbus A380 is actively used on intercontinental airlines.
Finally
The history of aviation opens the curtain and on its pages it is written that 60 years have passed from the first passenger, who was taken aboard in 1908, to the appearance of multi-seat airliners, and today passenger planes amaze us with the flight characteristics of altitude, speed and range, but and its size. Today, a transcontinental flight or a many-hour journey on an airliner is no longer something surprising.
Great attention is paid to the safety of creating large intercontinental airliners. In this regard, from the project idea to the first passenger flight, a rather long time passes.
In the photo: Airbus A380.
In pursuit of profit, due to an increase in the number of passenger seats and flight ranges, manufacturing companies attract specialists from various industries who develop safety and survivability parameters for aircraft in extreme situations in the air, during takeoff and landing.
Large passenger aircraft can be found at almost all airports in the world. Today, runways have been rebuilt for them, the navigation system and flight control have been improved.
Developments are underway to increase the speed of large passenger aircraft by introducing new discoveries in wing aerodynamics and increasing engine power. But recently, the changes concern only, so to speak, substantial changes, such as increasing the comfort of salons and the quality of passenger service. Leading airlines, manufacturers of air liners, pay much attention today to the implementation of anti-terror systems in passenger aircraft.
Article author: Valery Skiba