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The Skyraider was big, but the AN-2 looks even bigger when you see one on the ramp. They hold something like 12 people. You can open a door on the side and walk up an isle to the 'flight deck'. Pretty impressive, even if they only go about 110 knots.
Someone who flew the F-105 was telling me that it was the 'biggest' single ever produced. They had a max takeoff weight of around 50,000 lbs.
For shear size the Global Flyer may be the 'biggest' but I don't know what the takeoff weight is.
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I'd go with the Thud. First time I ever saw one of them up close and personal it was huge! Definitely bigger than the A1, even the A1E.
I remember refueling them in the late 60s when they were flying bombing missions up North out of Korat, and Takali. They carried six 750s on that centerline station. As they maneuvered around the bombs would be shaking around and banging into each other. I always wondered if the made a noise that could be heard in the cockpit. Funny how the mind goes back and picks up on stuff that should be totally irrelevant!
The D models was one of the few airplanes that had both a receptacle for the boom and a probe for the basket.
They took off using afterburner, water injection, and all of the available runway. Kind of like the KC135, except we didn't have afterburner.
We had a small compartment full of rocks just forward of the nose gear. When you reached rotation speed the compartment opened dropping the rocks on the runway. When the airplane felt itself running over them it figured it was out of runway, and FLEW!
Speaking of irrelevant stuff…another minuscule remembrance.
When I first went to Utapao, which is were the tankers flew most of the missions out of, I found the rendezvous were run by GCI controllers. And they used “port” and “starboard” for turn directions. Being a resourceful First Lieutenant (waaaayyyyy past a dumb ‘ol Second Loouie!) I took a grease pencil and wrote “port” on the left side of the windshield, and “starboard” on the right! Must have been some other idiots over there…pretty soon most of the airplanes had similar “direction reminders”!
Ah yes, life was good…except as a First Lieutenant you couldn’t fall back on the excuse of being just a “dumb second lieutenant” any more. You were expected to actually KNOW something! While still good, life was becoming more complex!
