It is hoped the Airlander 10, built by UK firm Hybrid Air Vehicles, will reignite interest in using airships, but is attracting more comments - particularly on social media - due to its apparent resemblance to a backside. One Turkish website even illustrated the point by mocking up a photograph featuring Kim Kardashian.
Here are more colossal aircraft through the ages...
Dornier Do X
The world's largest and heaviest flying boat when it was unveiled in 1929, the Dornier Do X was powered by 12 engines mounted on its wings. Three of the aircraft were built, each measuring a shade over 131 feet (40m) and with a maximum takeoff weight of 123,460 pounds (56,000 kilos). One carried 169 people on a test flight - a record that stood for 20 years.
Credit: GETTY
Linke-Hofmann R.II
This German bomber first flew in 1919 and at 66 feet (20.32m) it remains the largest aircraft ever to fly with only one propeller.
Credit: ALAMY
Tupolev ANT-20 "Maksim Gorky"
Slightly heavier than the Dornier Do X, this was largest land-based aircraft of the 1930s, measuring almost 108 feet (32.90 metres) in length and with a wingspan of 206 feet (63 metres).
Credit: ALAMY
Hughes H-4 Hercules
Also known as the "Spruce Goose", only one prototype of this giant aircraft was built and it only flew once. It is the largest flying boat ever, measures 218 feet (66.65m) in length, and has the largest wingspan of any aircraft in history - 320 feet 11 inches (97.54m). It can be seen the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum in McMinnville, Oregon.
Credit: ALAMY
Bristol Brabazon
Conceived as a giant luxury airliner, the Bristol Type 167 Brabazon was designed to carry 100 passengers, each of whom would have space on board equivalent to the interior of a small car. It proved to be a commercial failure, however, and only one was built, in 1949. It was broken up and sold for scrap four years later. The aircraft measured 177 feet (54m) in length.
Credit: GETTY
Boeing 747
The highest capacity aircraft from 1969 until 2005. The 747's newest variant - the 747-8 - is currently the longest passenger aircraft in the world, at 250 feet 2 inches (76.3 m).
Credit: GETTY
Antonov An-225 Mriya
This is the world's largest plane, the Antonov An-225 Mriya. Designed in the 1980s, initially for the task of transporting the Buran spacecraft, it is the longest and heaviest ever built, measuring 276 feet 7 inches (84 metres) and with a maximum takeoff weight of 1.41 million pounds (640,000 kilos).
Credit: GETTY
Antonov An-124 Ruslan
The second heaviest operating cargo aircraft, behind the Antonov An-225. It is also considerably more common, with 55 built, rather than just one.
Credit: GETTY
Ekranoplan KM
Built in 1966, this was the largest aircraft in the world until the Antonov An-225, with a length of 301 feet 10 inches (92m) and a maximum takeoff weight of 1.2 million pounds (544,000 kilos). The only one ever built crashed into the Caspian Sea during a test flight and was too heavy to be recovered.
Credit: К.Е.Сергеев
Airbus A380-800
The largest passenger aircraft ever built, the A380 "superjumbo" has a maximum takeoff weight of 1.27m pounds (575,000 kilos) and is 238 feet 7 inches (72.73m) long. More than 150 have been built since 2005.
Credit: GETTY
Beriev Be-2500
A concept aircraft that would be the world's biggest if it is ever built. According to Beriev it would measure 379 feet (115.5 metres) in length.
Credit: BERIEV.COM
Scaled Composites Stratolaunch
Another concept model, this could become the carrier aircraft for Stratolaunch Systems, a space transportation venture based at the Mojave Space Port. It would have a wingspan of 380 feet, the largest of any plane ever built.
Credit: Clem Tillier
LZ 129 Hindenburg
All these aircraft pale in comparison to the German airships of the 1930s. The Hindenburg was 803 feet 10 inches (245m) long, dwarfing more modern record breakers. The graphic shows its size compared with the Spruce Goose, the An-225, an Airbus A380 and a 747.
Credit: GETTY/Clem Tillier
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