Check out the video showing scale of all the ships and fighters in Elite
Space is big, so spaceships need to be adequately equipped for distant missions and venturing into the black. If you're one of the lucky owners of a VR set - you might know how actually big ships in Elite are... For the rest of us - here's an awesome video showing actual model sizes.
The videos (by Mat Recardo) show side-by-side comparison of all the ships currently available ingame, and all of them, including ship launched fighters, leaving the Coriolis station.