Does it look like the coolest plane you’ve ever seen, or just a disaster waiting to happen?
Regardless of your opinion, the world’s largest plane, Stratolaunch, is set to launch for the first time this fall.
The aircraft – which is the vision of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen – has a wingspan longer than a football field and comes equipped with two cockpits, 28 wheels and six engines normally used to power 747 jumbo jets.
Eventually will be used to transport rockets carrying satellites and even a newly revealed manned space plane into the Earth’s upper atmosphere, where they will blast off into space.
The Stratolaunch, the world’s largest plane.
Allen says it will take off this fall.
“When you see that giant plane, it’s a little nutty,” Allen told Wired’s Steven Levy in an interview about the project. “And you don’t build it unless you’re very serious, not only about wanting to see the plane fly but to see it fulfill its purpose. Which is getting vehicles in orbit.”
The company’s unique air-launch system will use the world’s largest aircraft as a mobile launch platform, capable of deploying launch vehicles that will carry satellites to multiple orbits and inclinations on a single mission.
With these new vehicles, Stratolaunch is poised to make access to space convenient, affordable, and routine.
It will be big enough to transport multiple satellites or other payloads, and is codenamed Kraken, with the first launch currently planned for 2022.