40 Interesting Airplane Facts
Did you know pilots and copilots are not allowed to have the same food to escape the possibility of food poisoning? Learn more interesting facts about airplanes on the list.
1. The Wright brothers invented and flew the first airplane in 1903.
2. The world’s smallest jet is the BD-5 Micro and weighs just 358 pounds.
3. The world’s largest runway is in China at the ‘Qamba Bamba’ Airport.
4. The first Concorde ever built to take its initial test flight was on March 2nd, 1969.
5. The oxygen in an airplane’s emergency Oxygen mask lasts for only 15 minutes.
6. The place near the tail of an airplane is the safest to be in the event of a crash.
7. The U.S. airline industry makes about $170 billion each year in revenue.
8. Worldwide, the airline industry generates over US$640 billion.
9. The world’s busiest airport is the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
10. The world’s fastest airplane is the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, flying at 2,193 miles per hour.
11. The world’s largest passenger plane is the Airbus A380.
12. The Airbus A380 has about 4 million parts.
13. The Concorde, which is the world’s fastest airliner, was built by British and French engineers.
14. The Concorde took 2 hours and 56 minutes to fly from New York to London on January 1st, 1983.
15. The C-5 is one of the longest military aircrafts.
16. One window frame of a Boeing 747-400 costs as much as a BMW.
17. Harriet Quimby was first woman in the U.S. to become licensed to fly in 1911.
18. The Antonov AN-225 cargo jet is the largest plane in the world.
19. Neil Armstrong was the first to carry a piece of the Wright Flyer with him to the moon.
20. Pilots and co-pilots often sleep during a long haul flight, depending on the autopilot system to manage the flight.
21. One the most deadly airplane accidents actually happened on the ground in 1977.
22. On an average, 61,000 people are airborne over the U.S. every hour.
23. Most pilots and copilots are not allowed to have the same food to escape the possibility of food poisoning.
24. Qantas airlines is the world’s safest airline.
25. Military airplanes can be as long as the height of six-story buildings.
26. Airport control tower windows must be angled at precisely 15 degrees.
27. Mercury is not allowed on a flight because a small amount of mercury can extremely damage aluminum, which is what most planes are made from.
28. Alaska Airlines were the ones that introduced the online check-in option for the first time.
29. All international airline pilots need to speak English.
30. Almost 30,000 flights take place in the U.S. every day.
31. Amelia Earhart was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.
32. Charles Lindbergh is arguably the most famous pilot in history.
33. American Airlines is the largest company by fleet size.
34. Chuck Yeager became the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound in 1947.
35. If you interested to take the longest flight in the World, you would have to board the flight from Sydney to Dallas in an Airbus A380 aircraft.
36. Leonardo da Vinci was the first person in the U.S. to become licensed to fly.
37. Airline blankets are washed every 5–30 days.
38. A plane called Voyager flew all the way around the world without landing or refueling.
39. About 1 in 5 people have fear flying, or “aviophobia”.
