The Wingspan reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Wingspan

The wingspan (or just span) of an airplane is the distance from the left wingtip to the right wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777 has a wingspan of about 60 m (200 feet).

The term wingspan, more technically extent, is also used for birds, and other winged animals such as pterosaurs, bats, insects, etc. For example, a Wandering Albatross (Diomedea exulans) caught in 1965 had a wingspan of 3.63 m, the official record for a living bird.

To measure the wingspan of a bird, a live or freshly dead specimen is placed flat on its back, the wings are grasped at the wrist joints, and the distance is measured from the tips of the longest primary feathers on each wing.

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