world aircraft industry has experienced in its history, a variety of fashions.The designers of the twenties, thirties and forties of the last century competed in speed, ceiling, range and of course the size of their creations.
huge ANT-20, named the great proletarian writer Maxim Gorky, in 1934 became the largest aircraft of its time (with the usual wheel chassis).Its importance for the air to a minimum, the airplane served probably propaganda function, its imposing views of causing a sense of pride for the Soviet Stalinist aviation.
However, soon gave way to questions of prestige priority pragmatic reasons.Leading airlines have seen that the more people who can hold a flying vehicle, the cheaper transport of each individual passenger.
path that went under the guidance of experts KB Tupolev at the beginning of the 1960s, creating the largest passenger aircraft in the world with turboprop power plant of the Tu-114, was typical of Soviet aviation technical school.The basis was taken strategic bomber Tu-95: the fuselage enlarged and equipped with three comfortable lounges.All the design flaws were caused by this conversion option, the requirements for military equipment are not taken into account the noise level and comfortable climbing ladder.
In the early seventies, the American company Boeing unveiled the largest passenger aircraft in the world, double-decker "Jumbo Jet-747."It was a masterpiece, take-off weight is slightly less than 400 tonnes, some modifications provide for the carriage of more than five hundred passengers.
However, not only the passengers were of interest to customers of aircraft.As in the Soviet Union, and the US Department of Defense developed the doctrine according to which the possibility of rapid deployment of a large number of goods is not the last.The largest aircraft in the world "Ruslan" AN-124 was originally designed to deliver missile systems, but also used in commercial and humanitarian purposes.Its dimensions and technical characteristics, such as the mass of the payload and range of flight, remain unsurpassed to this day.
For all its merits, "Ruslan" has one feature - it is absolutely not suitable for the transport of persons.It is commensurate with the size of the largest passenger airliner Airbus A380 created just for this purpose.Eight hundred and fifty passengers are settling down with unprecedented hitherto comfortably on two decks, a non-stop range of up to 15 thous. Km and a consumption of only three liters of kerosene per 100 kilometers per passenger create this heavenly titanium incomparable competitive advantage over its peers in the civil aviation furrowingbusy highway.
What will be the largest passenger aircraft in the world in the coming decades?How will it look like?Based on the general trends of the global aviation industry suggests that we should expect a further increase in the capacity of up to thousands of salons and more places, but the possibilities of classic layouts are not limitless, so it is unlikely to exceed the figure of 1500. The design is obviously increasingly be used composite materialsplastic.Such a conclusion can be drawn from data on the rapid development of polymer technology, providing more high strength combined with less weight.
But the question of who will create the next largest passenger aircraft in the world, remains open.Europe had their say, whose place is now?Maybe the Americans or the Russians?Is it possible that the next will be the Chinese giant?China aviation industry in recent years has developed rapidly ...
