Ringleader Abdulla Ahmed Ali, 28, was jailed for at least 40 years at Woolwich Crown Court.
Plot "quartermaster" Assad Sarwar, 29, was jailed for at least 36 years, while Tanvir Hussain, 28, must serve at least 32 years in jail.
Their aim was a terrorist outrage to "stand alongside" 9/11, the judge said.
Mr Justice Henriques called the plot "the most grave and wicked conspiracy ever proven within this jurisdiction".
"The intention was to perpetrate a terrorist outrage that would stand alongside the events of September 11, 2001 in history," he said.
The trial heard that at the time of his arrest, Ahmed Ali, of Walthamstow, east London, had identified seven US and Canada-bound flights that were to be attacked within a two-and-a-half-hour period.
The judge said that the plot had "reached an advanced stage in its development", with the men in possession of enough chemicals to produce 20 detonators.
"I'm satisfied that there is every likelihood that this plot would have succeeded but for the intervention of the police and the security service," he said.
"Had this conspiracy not been interrupted, a massive loss of life would almost certainly have resulted - and if the detonation was over land, the number of victims would have been even greater still."
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