Biggest airframe possible?

[DiabloTX]

Ok, this question has been bugging me for the last couple of days.  I figured the best way to get an answer would be to ask my best buds here at the AHII BBS.  So here goes:

Let's say someone has a contest.  The winner of the contest gets a google of dollars (88 ).  So here are the rules to win; the winner must build the largest possible airframe (determined by length + width + weight, or some better formula to determine the winner) that must be able to fly for at least 30 minutes at an altitude of no less than 30,000 ft.  A custom built runway will be available to the contestants.  There are no requirements for the aircraft to be used for anything after the contest so airline or military use is not a condition for the design.

Now, what do you think would be the biggest airframe, given today's technology, that could be built and flown?

[Billy Joe Bob]

waaayyyy back from like last year i dug up this pic.

replace the props with jets and there ya go

[lukster]

I don't think there's a limit technically. Is there any reason you couldn't line up a thousand F-16's, bolt their wingtips together and fly away? Of course they'd all have to function properly and in sync and need a pretty wide runway.

[DiabloTX]

Well, I am meaning something altogether new, not cobbled together.  Plus, F-16's wing to wing would get killed on the weight aspect.  It may be wide but not long at all and not weigh as much as a single very large airframe.  And the weight would be calculated as a dry weight, no loading up super-lifters with weight and claiming victory.

[lukster]

I was just using them as an example to show there should be no theoretical limit. Of course practically is another story.

[Debonair]

does dry weight include unuseable fuel?

[DiabloTX]

Zero fuel onboard during weigh in.

[Ball]

[Debonair]

thats pretty old fasioned of you:mad:

[Black Sheep]

Originally posted by Billy Joe Bob
waaayyyy back from like last year i dug up this pic.

replace the props with jets and there ya go

What in God's name is that from? Seems one shot from those 12 inchers (or whatev) would rip the guns from the wing roots. That or counter the thrust to let it hover.

[nirvana]

Computer animated picture from a video game or something I guess.


That's a really awesome aeroplane Ball, I can see you spent a lot of time on it.

[DiabloTX]

One of these was parked on the tarmac at Tocuman Airport in Panama when I was there last year.  It's one big sum*****.

[B@tfinkV]

you suck furball, and im older than you by 1/2 a year.. i use 2 colours of crayon for my draw wings, red and blue.  you suck.

[Ghosth]

Biggest possible would be limited only by the size of the runway available, and funding.

In theory a plane a mile wide is possible.
Granted the longer the wing gets the stronger it has to be to deal with uneven forces.

But given today's composite materials and a good design, a wing half a mile long is possible. Now, transporting it, getting it off the ground without a wind gust destroying it, etc are huge challenges.

Think modular construction that takes off as a series of pieces and locks together once up above surface winds.

[Chairboy]

I remember reading a short story ages ago that had a big flying wing (on the order of a thousand feet or more wide) that stayed in the air all the time and regional jets and commuter planes would climb up, 'dock' in a special collar, drop off/load up passengers, then pop back down to the ground.  

They described using Edwards to launch and recover these for maintenance every few months, neat stuff.