Set as Homepage - Add to Favorites
【female full frontal】

That's one big plane.

The female full frontalStratolaunch, the world's largest aircraft that just so happens to be designed to "enable airline-style access to space," successfully took flight for the first time in the Mojave Desert on April 13. The plane is the brainchild of Paul G. Allen's Stratolaunch Systems Corporation, and sports an impressive 385-foot wingspan.

SEE ALSO: SpaceX landed three of its boosters for the first time, and yep, it was impressive

That's not all that makes this plane remarkable. According to the company, the Stratolaunch has a max takeoff weight of 589,670 kilograms and will one day assist in the launching of rockets — and satellites — into space.

Mashable Light Speed Want more out-of-this world tech, space and science stories? Sign up for Mashable's weekly Light Speed newsletter. By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up!

"We all know Paul would have been proud to witness today’s historic achievement," Jody Allen, the trustee of the Paul G. Allen Trust, is quoted as saying in a press release announcing the launch. "The aircraft is a remarkable engineering achievement and we congratulate everyone involved."

Paul Allen co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates in 1975. He died late in 2018 as a result of complications from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Importantly, Saturday's flight was just a test — no rockets were launched from the giant plane as it soared at 17,000 feet. Instead, notes the press release, the pilot "[performed] a variety of flight control maneuvers to calibrate speed and test flight control systems, including roll doublets, yawing maneuvers, pushovers and pull-ups, and steady heading side slips."

Still though, if the Stratolaunch ends up working as intended, this test marks a big step in the journey toward reducing the cost of putting satellites into space. Which, frankly, makes this freakishly large plane all the cooler.


Featured Video For You
First image of a black hole is captured by astronomers

1.7921s , 10107.53125 kb

Copyright © 2025 Powered by 【female full frontal】,Exploration Information Network  

Sitemap

Top