The 4 T1 class ultra-large crude carriers were constructed in 2002/2003 by Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering in South Korea. They are 379 m long and 68 m wide and have a displacement of 517,659 metric tonnes when fully loaded. Named T1 Africa, T1 Asia, T1 Europe and T1 Oceania, they are the largest ships constructed since the Jahre Viking (Seawise Giant, Knock Nevis). In 2010 two of the T1 ships were converted to floating oil storage vessels.

The world’s largest oil producing company is Saudi Arabian Oil Co. (Saudi Aramco), which controls oil reserves of approximately 303,285 billion barrels.

The Ghawar field in Saudi Arabia was discovered in 1948 and measures around 280 x 25 miles, with an area of around 1.3 million acres (5,260 km2). It is owned and operated by Saudi Aramco and contains approximately 71 billion barrels of oil, with an estimated production rate of around 5 million barrels per day.

The largest target ever sunk by a submarine was the Japanese aircraft carrier Shinano (72,890 tonnes or 160.9 million lb), sunk by USS Archerfish (Cdr Joseph F. Enright, USN) on 29 November 1944.

Saturn’s moon Hyperion measures 410 x 260 x 220 km (254 x 161 x 136 miles) and is the largest highly irregularly shaped body in the Solar System. It is one of only two bodies in the Solar System discovered to have completely chaotic rotation, essentially randomly tumbling in its orbit around Saturn. The other is asteroid 4179 Toutatis, measuring 4.5 x 2.4 x 1.9 km (2.7 x 1.5 x 1.1 miles).

The largest orchestra playing on recycled materials consisted of 1,235 participants and was organised by New Taipei City Government in New Taipei City, Chinese Taipei, on 23 June 2012. All had individual drums made of recycled plastic cones.

The largest panpipes ensemble consisted of 2,317 participants at the Plaza San Francisco in La Paz, Bolivia on 24 October 2004.

The largest parade of Nissan cars consisted of 225 vehicles in an event organised by Skylineowners.com (UK) at the Silverstone Race Circuit, Towcester, Northamptonshire, UK, on 11 April 2010. The parade completed two full laps of the circuit at an average speed of 15-20 mph (24-32 km/h), achieving a distance of 3.5 mi (5.63 km) in total. 246 cars turned up on the day but for various reasons only 225 could be counted towards the record.

The largest parafoil parachute ever flown has a span of 43.6 m. (143 ft.) giving it a surface area of 700 sq. m. (7,500 sq. ft.), nearly one and a half times the size of the wings of a Boeing 747. Essentially a parachute that is ‘inflated’ by air pressure as it descends, the parafoil was developed by NASA to bring its X-38 spacecraft back to the surface after re-entering the atmosphere. Most paragliders, which are also parafoils, have a surface area of between 25 Continue reading →

The global deployment of United Nations peacekeeping representatives reached an historic high at the end of October 2006, with 80,976 military and police personnel, in addition to 15,000 civilians serving in peace operations around the world. In the same year, the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations led 18 different missions in Africa, the Caribbean, the Middle East, Europe and Asia. Peacekeeping personnel come from some 112 countries, as of 31 October 2006, the top 10 troop contributors were: Pakistan (9,790), Bangladesh (9,655), India (9,276), Continue reading →