How aircraft families grew: length range and weight growth
Across the 53 aircraft families with a page on this site, the Dassault Falcon line spans the widest length range, 76.3% from the Falcon 10 to the Falcon 8X. Next come the Dash 8 (47.7%) and the Airbus A320 family (41.5%), with the Embraer E-Jets (38.8%) and the Boeing 737 (38.0%) close behind.
A family here is this site’s own grouping of variants that share a lineage, not an FAA field. The site builds a family page only where the line has at least two different sets of dimensions and something that stands out against the rest of the file. The spread is measured from the shortest variant to the longest and given in feet and as a share of the shortest variant’s length.
Length
The median line on this site spreads 15.0% in length. The table shows the twelve that spread furthest. A wide spread can come from two routes: one airframe built in several lengths, as on the 737 and A320 lines, or a family name that covers very different airframes, as on the Falcon line, where the Falcon 8X has twice the wingspan of the Falcon 10. This site says “spread” rather than “stretch” for that reason.
Length spread of the twelve widest-ranging lines
| Line | Variants | From – to | Spread | Spread % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dassault Falcon | 7 | Falcon 10 to Falcon 8X | 34.7 ft | 76.3% |
| De Havilland Canada Dash 8 | 4 | Dash 8-100 to Dash 8-400 | 34.8 ft | 47.7% |
| Airbus A320 family | 7 | A318 to A321 | 42.8 ft | 41.5% |
| Air Tractor | 4 | AT-503 to AT-802 | 10.5 ft | 38.9% |
| Embraer E-Jets | 7 | 170 to E195-E2 | 38.1 ft | 38.8% |
| Boeing 737 | 11 | 737-200 to 737 MAX 9 | 38.1 ft | 38.0% |
| Learjet | 10 | 23 to 60 | 15.4 ft | 35.6% |
| Bombardier CRJ | 4 | CRJ100 to CRJ900 | 31.0 ft | 35.3% |
| Cessna 310, 320, 335 and 340 | 4 | 310 to 340 | 11.3 ft | 35.3% |
| BAe Jetstream | 3 | Jetstream 31 to Jetstream 41 | 16.1 ft | 34.2% |
| Piper Navajo and Cheyenne | 4 | PA-31 Navajo to PA-42 Cheyenne III | 10.8 ft | 33.1% |
| Beech King Air | 6 | King Air 90 to Super King Air 300 | 11.2 ft | 31.5% |
At the other end, one line on this site keeps one length across all variants: the Beech Queen Air, which differ in other dimensions or in weight instead.
Wings
Wingspans vary within most lines too: 43 of the 53 family pages show more than one. The widest range of spans inside one line belongs to the Dassault Falcon, from 42.9 ft to 86.3 ft. On the 737 and A320 lines the wider wings stop just short of the 118 ft line, which the 118-foot line explainer shows.
Weight
Maximum takeoff weight grew faster than length on 38 of the 53 lines with published weights. The Falcon line again leads, with the heaviest variant 289.5% above the lightest, followed by the Dash 8 and the Piper Navajo and Cheyenne line. The 737’s weight grew 68.6% over a length spread of 38.0%. The weights are those of the sub-model the FAA chose for each designator.
| Line | Lightest | Heaviest | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dassault Falcon | 18,740 lb | 73,000 lb | 289.5% |
| De Havilland Canada Dash 8 | 34,500 lb | 64,500 lb | 87.0% |
| Piper Navajo and Cheyenne | 6,500 lb | 12,050 lb | 85.4% |
| Learjet | 12,500 lb | 22,750 lb | 82.0% |
| Air Tractor | 9,170 lb | 16,000 lb | 74.5% |
| Aero Commander twins | 6,000 lb | 10,325 lb | 72.1% |
| Embraer Phenom | 10,582 lb | 17,968 lb | 69.8% |
| Bombardier CRJ | 47,450 lb | 80,500 lb | 69.7% |
| Boeing 737 | 115,500 lb | 194,700 lb | 68.6% |
| Embraer E-Jets | 82,673 lb | 135,585 lb | 64.0% |
Tail height and reference speed
Tails change less than length. The widest tail-height range inside one line belongs to the Dassault Falcon, from 15.1 ft to 26.1 ft, while six lines keep a single published tail height across every variant. The FAA reference approach speed, the input for the Approach Category, moves more: the De Havilland Canada Dash 8 spans 92 to 125 kt, the widest range of any line here, and nine lines share one reference speed throughout.
Size of line matters too. Of the 53 family pages, 21 cover just two variants and 11 cover five or more. Of the twelve lines with the widest length spread, six have five or more variants, so a long list of variants helps but is not the whole story: the Dash 8 reaches second place with four.
Families that cross a line
Of the 53 lines, 12 have variants in more than one Design Group, and 19 span more than one Approach Category. The Falcon line is the only one that covers three Design Groups (I, II and III); the 747 and 777 lines both reach from Group V into Group VI, and the CRJ line moves from Group II into Group III. In 16 lines at least one pair of variants publishes identical dimensions; their family pages note those pairs under the table.
By maker and by traffic
Boeing has the most family pages on this site with 8, followed by Airbus (5), Beech (5), Cessna (5) and Piper (5). By FY2024 US flight-plan operations the largest lines are the Boeing 737 (6,576,350), Airbus A320 family (4,526,540) and Embraer E-Jets (2,385,692); those counts cover only flights with a US flight plan.
The biggest families
By number of variants the Boeing 737 line is the largest on the site with 11, from the 737-200 to the 737 MAX 9. The two-variant pages at the other end include the Aeronca Chief and Champion, the Airbus A220 and the Airbus A350. Each family page draws its largest and smallest variant at one scale and lists every variant in a table, shortest first; variants without a page of their own are linked from there.
Sources: FAA Aircraft Characteristics Database, October 2024 release. Family grouping, spreads and growth computed by this site.