You can only make a plane so big if you still want it to fly, or a vehicle so gigantic before it starts wrecking the land it travels across. Ships, too, face similar challenges the larger they get. We’ve found six gigantic examples that straddle the line between engineering marvel and disaster, representing the biggest vehicles on the planet today.
1. Antonov An-225 Mriya
World’s biggest what? Fixed-wing aircraft.
Built by: Antonov Design Bureau of Soviet Russia.
The An-225’s massive 290-foot wingspan makes it the largest plane flying today, and its cargo hold is so big that the entirety of the Wright brothers’ historic first flight could have taken place inside the Mriya. The craft can carry a space shuttle on its back, and it transports all manner of heavy loads, including train engines, 150-ton generators for power plants and 130-foot-long wind-turbine blades.
Video:
Here’s a pretty sweet Discovery Channel spot on the Mriya
