The wingspan (or just span) of a

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

or an

airplane An airplane (American English), or aeroplane (Commonwealth English), informally plane, is a fixed-wing aircraft that is propelled forward by thrust from a jet engine, Propeller (aircraft), propeller, or rocket engine. Airplanes come in a vari ...

is the distance from one wingtip to the opposite wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a

wandering albatross The snowy albatross (''Diomedea exulans''), also known as the wandering albatross, white-winged albatross, or goonie, is a large seabird from the family Diomedeidae Albatrosses, of the biological family (biology), family Diomedeidae, are la ...

(''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingspan of , the official record for a living bird. The term wingspan, more technically 'extent' , is also used for other winged animals such as

pterosaur Pterosaurs are an extinct clade of flying reptiles in the order Pterosauria. They existed during most of the Mesozoic: from the Late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous (228 million to 66 million years ago). Pterosaurs are the earli ...

bat Bats are flying mammals of the order Chiroptera (). With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most birds, flying with their very long spread-out ...

insect Insects (from Latin ') are Hexapoda, hexapod invertebrates of the class (biology), class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (Insect morphology#Head, head, ...

s, etc., and other

aircraft An aircraft ( aircraft) is a vehicle that is able to flight, fly by gaining support from the Atmosphere of Earth, air. It counters the force of gravity by using either Buoyancy, static lift or the Lift (force), dynamic lift of an airfoil, or, i ...

such as ornithopters. In

human Humans (''Homo sapiens'') or modern humans are the most common and widespread species of primate, and the last surviving species of the genus ''Homo''. They are Hominidae, great apes characterized by their Prehistory of nakedness and clothing ...

s, the term wingspan also refers to the arm span, which is the distance between the length from the end of an individual's arm (measured at the fingertips) to the individual's fingertips on the other arm when raised parallel to the ground at shoulder height.

Wingspan of aircraft

The wingspan of an aircraft is always measured in a straight line, from wingtip to wingtip, regardless of wing shape or sweep.

Implications for aircraft design and animal evolution

The lift from wings is proportional to their area, so the heavier the animal or aircraft the bigger that area must be. The area is the product of the span times the width ( mean chord) of the wing, so either a long, narrow wing or a shorter, broader wing will support the same mass. For efficient steady flight, the ratio of span to chord, the

aspect ratio The aspect ratio of a geometry, geometric shape is the ratio of its sizes in different dimensions. For example, the aspect ratio of a rectangle is the ratio of its longer side to its shorter side—the ratio of width to height, when the rectangl ...

, should be as high as possible (the constraints are usually structural) because this lowers the

lift-induced drag Lift-induced drag, induced drag, vortex drag, or sometimes drag due to lift, in aerodynamics, is an aerodynamic drag force that occurs whenever a moving object redirects the airflow coming at it. This drag force occurs in airplanes due to wings or ...

associated with the inevitable

wingtip vortices Wingtip vortices are circular patterns of rotating air left behind a wing as it generates Lift (force), lift. The name is a misnomer because the cores of the vortex, vortices are slightly inboard of the wing tips. Wingtip vortices are sometimes ...

. Long-ranging birds, like albatrosses, and most commercial aircraft maximize aspect ratio. Alternatively, animals and aircraft which depend on maneuverability (fighters, predators and prey, as well as those who live amongst trees and bushes, insect catchers, etc.) need to be able to roll fast to turn, and the high

moment of inertia The moment of inertia, otherwise known as the mass moment of inertia, angular/rotational mass, second moment of mass, or most accurately, rotational inertia, of a rigid body is defined relatively to a rotational axis. It is the ratio between ...

of long narrow wings, as well as the high angular drag and quick balancing of

aileron An aileron (French for "little wing" or "fin") is a hinged flight control surface usually forming part of the trailing edge of each wing of a fixed-wing aircraft. Ailerons are used in pairs to control the aircraft in roll (or movement aroun ...

lift with wing lift at a low rotation rate, produce lower roll rates. For them, short-span, broad wings are preferred. Additionally, ground handling in aircraft is a significant problem for very high aspect ratios and flying animals may encounter similar issues. The highest aspect ratio of man-made wings are aircraft propellers, in their most extreme form as

helicopter rotor On a helicopter, the main rotor or rotor system is the combination of several rotary wings (rotor blades) with a control system, that generates the aerodynamic lift (force), lift force that supports the weight of the helicopter, and the thrust ...

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 In human anatomy, the wrist is variously defined as (1) the carpus or carpal bones, the complex of eight bones forming the proximal skeletal segment of the hand; "The wrist contains eight bones, roughly aligned in two rows, known as the carpal ...

joints and the distance is measured between the tips of the longest primary feathers on each wing. The wingspan of an insect refers to the wingspan of pinned specimens, and may refer to the distance between the centre of the thorax and the apex of the wing doubled or to the width between the apices with the wings set with the trailing wing edge

perpendicular In geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if they intersect at right angles, i.e. at an angle of 90 degrees or π/2 radians. The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the '' perpendicular symbol'', � ...

to the body.

Wingspan in sports

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

and

gridiron football Gridiron football ( ),"Gridiron football"
''Encyclopædia Britannica'' ...

, a fingertip-to-fingertip measurement is used to determine the player's wingspan, also called armspan. This is called reach in boxing terminology. The wingspan of 16-year-old BeeJay Anya, a top basketball Junior Class of 2013 prospect who played for the NC State Wolfpack, was officially measured at across, one of the longest of all

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

draft prospects, and the longest ever for a non-7-foot player, though Anya went undrafted in 2017. The wingspan of

Manute Bol Manute Bol ( ; June 19, 2010) was a Sudanese-American professional basketball player and political activist. Listed at or tall, Bol was one of the two tallest players in the history of the National Basketball Association (NBA). After he p ...

, at , is (as of 2013) the longest in NBA history, and his vertical reach was .

Wingspan records

Largest wingspan

*Aircraft:

Scaled Composites Stratolaunch The Scaled Composites Model 351 Stratolaunch or Roc is an aircraft built by Scaled Composites for Stratolaunch Systems to carry air-launch-to-orbit (ALTO) rockets, and subsequently repurposed to offer air launch hypersonic flight testing a ...

— *Bat: Large flying fox – *Bird **Extant:

Wandering albatross The snowy albatross (''Diomedea exulans''), also known as the wandering albatross, white-winged albatross, or goonie, is a large seabird from the family Diomedeidae Albatrosses, of the biological family (biology), family Diomedeidae, are la ...

– **Extinct: '' Argentavis'' – Estimated *Insect **Extant: White witch moth – **Extinct: '' Meganeuropsis'' ( Griffinfly, relative of dragonflies) – estimated up to *Reptile: '' Hatzegopteryx'' ( Azhdarchid pterosaur) –

Smallest wingspan

*Aircraft **Biplane: Starr Bumble Bee II – **Jet: Bede BD-5 – **Twin engine: Colomban Cri-cri – *Bat: Bumblebee bat – *Bird:

Bee hummingbird The bee hummingbird, zunzuncito or Helena hummingbird (''Mellisuga helenae'') is a species of hummingbird, native to the island of Cuba in the Caribbean. It is the smallest known bird. The bee hummingbird feeds on nectar of flowers and bugs foun ...

– *Insect: Tanzanian parasitic wasp ( Fairyfly) – *Reptile: '' Nemicolopterus'' ( Tapejaromorph pterosaur) –

References

{{Authority control Aerospace engineering Aircraft wing design Birds Length Anatomical terminology