AWWA Sky Whale, the biggest aircraft?
Till date, Airbus A380 having a seating capacity between 500 and 800 people, is the biggest passenger-carrying aircraft ever to fly the skies. But the A380 could be become small fry if another, even more outsized design takes to the skies.
The AWWA Sky Whale is a concept aircraft from Spanish designer Oscar Vinals. With three decks for passengers, it looks like a cross between a tropical fish and a sci-fi space shuttle. Bigger means better in the world of airliners; the dawn of the jet age brought in the likes of the Boeing 707, an aircraft capable of carrying more passengers quicker and faster than any propeller-driven design. The advent of ‘jumbo’ designs, characterised by Boeing’s 747, meant more passengers per flight and therefore cheaper seats. The plane would have swivelling engines for shorter take offs.
The design would use advanced technologies such as self-repairing wings, swiveling engines to enable a near vertical take-off and hybrid propulsion. The engines and batteries are fed by a turbine inside the wings, like a high-speed and powerful dynamo. The design also calls for a system to redirect air flow to intake engines and to control laminar flow – in other words, to reduce turbulence around the plane and reduce drag.
According to Vinals, there are three factors to consider while evaluating the design of an aircraft, collectively known as the Breguet Range equation. They are: propulsive efficiency (how efficient are your engines?); aerodynamic efficiency (is lift maximised and drag minimised?); and structural efficiency (how much payload can you carry?).