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The wingspan (or just span) of an airplane
Fixed-wing aircraft

A fixed-wing aircraft is an aircraft capable of heavier-than-air flight whose Lift is generated not by wing motion relative to the aircraft, but by forward motion through the air....
 or a bird
Bird

Birds are wing, Bipedalismal, endothermic , vertebrate animals that lay egg . There are around 10,000 living species, making them the most numerous tetrapod vertebrates....
, is the distance from the left wingtip to the right wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777
Boeing 777

The Boeing 777 is a long-range, Wide-body aircraft twin-engine airliner manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The world's largest twinjet and commonly referred to as the "Triple Seven", the aircraft can carry between 283 and 368 passengers in a three-class configuration, and has a range from 5,235 to 9,380 nautical miles ....
 has a wingspan of about 60 m (200 feet). The term wingspan, more technically extent, is also used for other winged animals such as pterosaur
Pterosaur

Pterosaurs were flying reptiles of the clade or Order Pterosauria. They existed from the late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous Period . Pterosaurs are the earliest vertebrates known to have evolved powered flight....
s, bat
Bat

Bats are mammals in the order Chiroptera. The forelimbs of all bats are developed as wings, making them the only mammals naturally capable of sustained flight ....
s, insect
Insect

Insects are the biggest class of arthropods and the only ones with wings. They are the most diverse group of animals on the planet. They are most diverse at the equator and their diversity declines toward the poles....
s, etc, and other winged aircraft
Aircraft

An aircraft is a vehicle which is able to flight by being supported by the air, or in general, the atmosphere, of a planet. Examples include balloons, airplanes and helicopters....
 such as ornithopter
Ornithopter

An ornithopter is an aircraft that flight by flapping its wings. Designers seek to imitate the flapping-wing flight of birds, bats, and insects....
s.






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Aer
The wingspan (or just span) of an airplane
Fixed-wing aircraft

A fixed-wing aircraft is an aircraft capable of heavier-than-air flight whose Lift is generated not by wing motion relative to the aircraft, but by forward motion through the air....
 or a bird
Bird

Birds are wing, Bipedalismal, endothermic , vertebrate animals that lay egg . There are around 10,000 living species, making them the most numerous tetrapod vertebrates....
, is the distance from the left wingtip to the right wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777
Boeing 777

The Boeing 777 is a long-range, Wide-body aircraft twin-engine airliner manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The world's largest twinjet and commonly referred to as the "Triple Seven", the aircraft can carry between 283 and 368 passengers in a three-class configuration, and has a range from 5,235 to 9,380 nautical miles ....
 has a wingspan of about 60 m (200 feet). The term wingspan, more technically extent, is also used for other winged animals such as pterosaur
Pterosaur

Pterosaurs were flying reptiles of the clade or Order Pterosauria. They existed from the late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous Period . Pterosaurs are the earliest vertebrates known to have evolved powered flight....
s, bat
Bat

Bats are mammals in the order Chiroptera. The forelimbs of all bats are developed as wings, making them the only mammals naturally capable of sustained flight ....
s, insect
Insect

Insects are the biggest class of arthropods and the only ones with wings. They are the most diverse group of animals on the planet. They are most diverse at the equator and their diversity declines toward the poles....
s, etc, and other winged aircraft
Aircraft

An aircraft is a vehicle which is able to flight by being supported by the air, or in general, the atmosphere, of a planet. Examples include balloons, airplanes and helicopters....
 such as ornithopter
Ornithopter

An ornithopter is an aircraft that flight by flapping its wings. Designers seek to imitate the flapping-wing flight of birds, bats, and insects....
s. For example, a Wandering Albatross
Wandering Albatross

The Wandering Albatross, Snowy Albatross, or White-winged Albatross, Diomedea exulans, is a large seabird from the family Diomedeidae which has a circumpolar range in the Southern Ocean....
 (Diomedea exulans) caught in 1965 had a wingspan of 3.63 m, the official record for a living bird.

Wingspan of aircraft

The wingspan of an aircraft is always measured in a straight line, from wingtip to wingtip, independently of wing shape or sweep
Swept wing

A swept-wing is a wing planform common on jet aircraft capable of near-sonic or supersonic speeds. The wings are swept back instead of being set at right angles to the fuselage which was common on propeller.driven aircraft and early jets....
.

Implications for aircraft design and animal evolution


The lift from wings is proportional to their area, so the heavier the animal or aircraft the bigger that area must be. The area is the product of the span times the width (mean chord
Chord

Chord may mean:* Chord , a aggregate of musical pitches sounded simultaneously.** Guitar chord an aggregate of musical pitches played simultaneously on a guitar...
) of the wing, so either a long, narrow wing or a shorter, broader wing will support the same mass. For efficient steady flight the ratio of span to chord, the aspect ratio
Aspect ratio

The aspect ratio of a shape is the ratio of its longer dimension to its shorter dimension. It may be applied to two characteristic dimensions of a three-dimensional shape, such as the ratio of the longest and shortest axis, or for symmetrical objects that are described by just two measurements, such as the length and diameter of a rod....
, should be as high as possible (the constraints are usually structural) because this lowers the lift-induced drag associated with the inevitable wingtip vortices
Wingtip vortices

Wingtip vortex are tubes of circulating air which are left behind a wing as it generates Lift . One wingtip vortex trails from the Wing tip of each wing....
. Long-ranging birds, like albatrosses, and most commercial aircraft maximize aspect ratio. Alternatively, animals and aircraft which depend on maneuverability (fighters, predators, the predated and those who live amongst trees and bushes, insect catchers, etc.) need to be able to roll fast to turn, and the high moment of inertia
Moment of inertia

Moment of inertia, also called mass moment of inertia or the angular mass, is a measure of an object's resistance to changes in its rotation rate....
 of long narrow wings produces lower roll rates. For them, short-span, broad wings are preferred.

The highest aspect ratio man-made wings are aircraft propellers in their most extreme form as helicopter rotors.

Bats have a wingspan of 6-10cm

Wingspan of flying animals

To measure the wingspan of a bird, a live or freshly dead specimen is placed flat on its back, the wings are grasped at the wrist
Wrist

In human anatomy, the wrist is the flexible and narrower connection between the forearm and the hand. The wrist is essentially a double row of small short bones, called carpals, intertwined to form a malleable hinge....
 joints,ankles and the distance is measured between the tips of the longest primary feathers on each wing.

Wingspan in sports

In basketball
Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five active players each try to score points against one another by propelling a basketball through a 10 feet  high hoop under organized rules....
, a fingertip to fingertip measurement is used to determine what is known as a player's wingspan. This is also called reach
Reach (physical measurement)

Reach is the physical measurement of the length from one end of an individual's arms to the other when raised parallel to the ground at shoulder height....
 in boxing terminology.

Wingspan records


Largest wingspan

  • Aircraft: Hughes H-4 Hercules
    Hughes H-4 Hercules

    The Hughes H-4 Hercules was a prototype heavy transport aircraft designed and built by the Hughes Aircraft company. The aircraft made its first and only flight on 2 November 1947....
     "Spruce Goose" - 319 ft 11 in = 97.54m
  • Bat: Flying fox
    Pteropus

    Bats of the genus Pteropus, belonging to the Megabat sub-order, are the largest bats in the world. They are commonly known as the Fruit Bats or Flying Foxes among other numerous colloquial names....
     - 2m
  • Bird: Wandering albatross
    Wandering Albatross

    The Wandering Albatross, Snowy Albatross, or White-winged Albatross, Diomedea exulans, is a large seabird from the family Diomedeidae which has a circumpolar range in the Southern Ocean....
     - 3.63m
  • Bird (extinct): Giant Teratorn - 8.3 m
  • Reptile: Quetzalcoatlus
    Quetzalcoatlus

    Quetzalcoatlus was a pterodactyloid pterosaur known from the Late Cretaceous of North America , and one of the largest known flying animals of all time....
     pterosaur - 15m(18m?)
  • Insect: White Witch moth - 280mm


Smallest wingspan


  • Aircraft (Biplane): Bumble Bee II
    Bumble Bee II

    Bumble Bee II is the world's smallest piloted airplane. It was built by Robert H. Starr. Its first flight was on 8 May 1988....
     - 5 ft 6 in
  • Aircraft (Jet): Bede BD-5
    Bede BD-5

    The BD-5 Micro is a small, single-seat homebuilt aircraft kit aircraft created in the late 1960s by US aircraft designer Jim Bede and introduced to the market by the now-defunct Bede Aircraft Company in the early 1970s....
     - 14 ft
  • Bat: Bumblebee bat
    Bumblebee Bat

    Kitti's Hog-nosed Bat , also known as the bumblebee bat, is a vulnerable species of bat and the only member of the family Craseonycteridae....
     - 16cm
  • Bird: Bee hummingbird
    Bee Hummingbird

    The Bee Hummingbird is a hummingbird, and the smallest of all birds. It can be found in Cuba , including the Isle of Youth. Its mass is approximately 1.8 gram, and it is about 5 cm long....
     - 6.5cm
  • Insect: Tanzanian parasitic wasp
    Parasitic wasp

    The term Parasitoid wasp refers to a large evolutionary grade of hymenopteran Superfamily, mainly in the Apocrita. They are primarily parasitoids of other animals, mostly other arthropods....
     - 0.2mm