[tlb]

"...with a wingspan of over 150ft, the Boeing 314 was (and remains) one of the largest aircraft ever to take to the sky"

"Remains" is stretching the point. The original 747 (1975) was 195ft wingspan. Modern 787s are also around 195ft. The 767-200 (1981) is comparable at 156ft.

By weight, the 314 was small by modern standards: 84000 lbs MTOW, less than a 737-200 at 128000 lbs MTOW.

[dexen]

And then there's the Convair B-36 Peacemaker, with 230ft (~70m) wingspan. The last major piston-engind heavy bomber, design was started in 1941, put in service in 1949, and retired in 1959.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convair_B-36_Peacemaker

The plane's also notable for having been one of very few operational flying aircraft carrier types - able to carry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_XF-85_Goblin

[ansible]

True.

It was a big bird for its time. It is a shame that none were preserved, though that isn't much of a surprise because even just one of them would be expensive to store and maintain in a non-flyable state.

[NegativeLatency]

There is a full size mockup though: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_314_Clipper#Surviving_a...

[gambiting]

"full size" doesn't include the wings, sadly - just the interior and main hull.

[perl4ever]

I had the general impression B-52s were some of the largest airplanes as well, but when I looked up the stats on Wikipedia it turned out they are quite a bit smaller than large passenger/cargo jets today.

[hinkley]

Might be a missing qualifier. For sea planes, that appears to still be an impressive span.