World's largest airplane rolls out of its hanger for first time

RT
Thu, 01 Jun 2017 18:20 UTC

The world's largest airplane - designed to reshape space travel by launching rockets mid-air into orbit from 30,000 ft - rolled out of its hangar for the first time Wednesday at the Mojave Air and Space Port in the US.

The groundbreaking plane, which looks like two aircraft joined together, is the brainchild of billionaire Microsoft Co-Founder Paul Allen and his private spaceflight company Stratolaunch. Allen founded the company in 2011 with the goal of making access to low-Earth orbit more "convenient, reliable and routine."

It has the biggest wingspan of any aircraft ever built, coming in 385ft (117 meters), longer than an NFL field which is 360ft in length.

Aside from it's unmatched wingspan, the aircraft is 238ft from nose to tail and stands 50ft high on it's 28 wheels. This is the first time the public has got a look at the spaceplane and now work must begin on testing before its predicted maiden voyage in 2019.

"This marks the completion of the initial aircraft-construction phase and the beginning of the aircraft ground-and flight-testing phase," Stratolaunch CEO Jean Floyd said in a press release.

"This was a crucial step in preparing the aircraft for ground testing, engine runs, taxi tests and, ultimately, first flight," he added.

Reader Comments

C-dog · 2017-06-01T22:25:12Z

It looks like another foam and fiberglass wonder. They better tie those horizontal stabilizers together or the plane is likely to twist and tear itself in two.

Speedz · 2017-06-02T04:07:26Z

C-dog That was my first thought too. Not to mention 3 engines on the opposing sides and I suspect payloads will be attached to the center. The stress load on the mid section have got to be quite extreme. Hope they don't expect a long service life.

Woodsman · 2017-06-02T06:24:00Z

It was probably rewarding to engineer and work on, but...

What is the advantage of this over just building 2 regular airplanes? Is there a fuel savings or something?

It looks dangerous and unwieldy and really difficult to land safely.

But whatever. It's not my money.

deej · 2017-06-03T02:05:21Z

bizarre but cool. James McCanney wrote about how much more efficient it would be to launch spacecraft using a plant to carry it the first 30,000 ft of altitude.

It takes the plane much less fuel to haul it to that altitude than it takes rocket fuel to boost it to that height.

I gotta admit, I didn't think I'd live to see the day they would actually try that.

baron · 2017-06-05T16:48:00Z

Should be entitled "Worlds' Dumbest Make Biggest Mistake"

HashAttack2 · 2017-06-05T17:07:00Z

how much different is it to launch from 10,000M as opposed to sea level

Escape velocity is the square root of 2GM / r - r being the radius

At sea level R = 6,371,000 and at 10K, R = 6,381,000

It seems fractional to me?

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World's largest airplane rolls out of its hanger for first time

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