Big planes that worked

The BBC has an article by  Stephen Dowling about some really big airplanes:
Aircraft designers have always been striving to build bigger and bigger planes, and some of their creations have tested man’s ability to fly to the very limit. Since the dawn of flight, the desire to build bigger and bigger aircraft has been a constant, and resulted in a string of ever-increasing craft pushing the limits of technology.
World War One saw designers create aviation’s first giants: multi-engined bombers that flew hundreds of miles beyond the front. Between the wars, flying boats like the Dornier Do X and airliners like the USSR’s ANT-20 reached sizes undreamed of only decades before. The latter, weighing over fifty tons at takeoff and with a wingspan of 207 feet, had its own printing press, movie theatre, and photo lab.
The advent of the jet engine allowed aircraft to become bigger and heavier, resulting in planes like the Airbus A380, a double-decker capable of carrying more than eight hundred people into the air, and the Antonov An-225 transport, a freighter which can haul 250 tons of cargo into the air and is longer than the Wright Brothers’ first flight.
Here is our selection of some of aviation’s biggest giants:

The biggest plane of World War One was the Zeppelin-Staaken R.VI. Made of wood, each plane required a ground crew of fifty.

Another German giant was the Dornier Do X, a flying boat powered by twelve engines, which could carry up to a hundred passengers. It weighed a massive fifty-six tons.

Tupolev's ANT-20 was a propaganda tool, an airliner with a radio station, a cinema, and a photo lab, and a huge engine above the fuselage to help it fly.

One of World War Two's biggest aircraft, Boeing's B-29 Superfortress dropped atomic bombs on Japan and ushered in a new age of giant, long-range bombers.

Eccentric industrialist Howard Hughes' H-4 Hercules has the largest wingspan of any plane; but the giant 'Spruce Goose' flew only a handful of times.

The Convair B-36 Peacemaker was the world's first intercontinental bomber, and needed a mix of propellers and jet engines to get its vast bulk airborne.

Boeing's enormous B-52 Stratofortress remains one of the biggest jet aircraft ever made, only getting into the air thanks to eight powerful engines.

The world's heaviest combat aircraft, Tupolev's Tu-160 has a maximum take-off weight of some 275 tons; it's the biggest swing-wing plane ever made.

While the Boeing 747 was the first to be referred to as a Jumbo Jet, Airbus’ A380 is even bigger – it can carry 850 people. Can airliners get any bigger?

The biggest aircraft ever built, Antonov’s An-225 is a six-engined monster, capable of carrying nearly 250 tons of freight.

Rico says bigger ain't always better, but it is impressive...