Everything about The Wingspan totally explained
The
wingspan (or just
span) of an
airplane or a
bird, is the distance from the left wingtip to the right wingtip. For example, the
Boeing 777 has a wingspan of about 60 m (200 feet).
The term
wingspan, more technically
extent, is also used for other winged animals such as
pterosaurs,
bats,
insects, etc, and other winged
aircraft such as
ornithopters. For example, a
Wandering Albatross (
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.
Implications for aircraft design
Planes with a longer wingspan are generally more efficient because they suffer less
induced drag and their
wingtip vortices don't affect the wing as much. However, the long wings mean that the plane has a greater
moment of inertia about its
longitudinal axis and therefore can't roll as quickly and is less maneuverable. Thus, combat aircraft and aerobatic planes usually opt for shorter wingspans to increase maneuverability..
Since the amount of lift that a
wing generates is proportional to the area of the wing, planes with short wings must correspondingly have a longer
chord. An aircraft's ratio of its wingspan to chord is therefore very important in determining its characteristics, and
aerospace engineers call this value the
aspect ratio of a wing.
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 joints,ankles and the distance is measured between the tips of the longest
primary feathers on each wing.
Wingspan in sports
In
basketball, a fingertip to fingertip measurement is used to determine what is known as a player's wingspan. This is also called
reach in boxing terminology.
Wingspan records
Largest wingspan
Smallest wingspan
Aircraft (Biplane): Bumble Bee II - 5 ft 6 in
Aircraft (Jet): Bede BD-5 - 14 ft
Bat: Bumblebee bat - 16cm
Bird: Bee hummingbird - 6.5cm
Insect: Tanzanian parasitic wasp - 0.2mmFurther Information
Get more info on 'Wingspan'.
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