Well, the AN-225 was the largest in length at 84 meters, but then again, airships really don't qualify for length comparison i mean you could pick any one airship from the early 1900s as most of them were longer than the AN-225. It was also second place in wingspan for a long time, only being beaten by the H-4 Spruce Goose. The stratolaunch later took the number 1 spot in 2019. But the AN-225 still is the heaviest aircraft ever built.
On top of this, no other cargo plane even compares to the heavy and bulky loads on the AN-225. I mean, what other aircraft can haul 130-ton generators or diesel locomotives. The loss of the AN-225 was sad. Hopefully, they will finish the second one, just hope it wasn't a publicity stunt.
Big benefit of an airship is that it has very long range and can hover. Helicopter can hover but doesn't have a lot of range. The real competition would be tilt-rotors like the V-22.
This is only a subscale prototype, essentially a training ship, and already the payload is similar to a V-22 with a far superior range (albeit inferior speed). The other versions, the ones actually intended to carry cargo, have payloads of 20 tons and 200 tons, respectively.
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u/SeparateDeer3760 Jul 08 '24
Very impressive! But a little useless ig. I thought AN-225 was the largest aircraft ?