What is wing span?

• A. The distance from the fuselage to the wing tip.
• B. The maximum distance from wingtip to wingtip.
• C. Distance along the wing chord.
• D. Thickness of the wing.

Answer: (B)

Wing span is the overall width of the aircraft's wings, measured from the tip of one wing to the tip of the other. This is the maximum distance across the wings, i.e., the straight-line distance from tip to tip. It’s not the distance from the fuselage to a tip (that would be one half of the span on a symmetrical aircraft), nor the distance along the wing’s chord (that would be the chord length), and not the wing’s thickness. Knowing the wingspan matters for things like ground clearance, hangar size, and aerodynamic design, since it represents the full width of the wings.