Called Stratolaunch, the plane has some impressive stats: a wingspan of 385 feet, or longer than a football field, and a height of 50 feet. Unfueled, it weighs 500,000 pounds. But it can carry 250,000 pounds of fuel, and its total weight can reach 1.3 million pounds.
But, really ... how big is it? It’s so big that it has 28 wheels and six 747 jet engines. It’s so big that it has 60 miles of wire coursing through it. It’s so big that the county had to issue special construction permits just for the construction scaffolding.
It’s not to carry passengers, but rather rockets. The bigger the plane, the larger the rockets, or the greater the number.
Allen’s Stratolaunch company has partnered with Orbital ATK to “air launch” the Dulles-based company's Pegasus XL, a rocket capable of delivering small satellites, weighing as much as 1,000 pounds, to orbit. The rockets would be tethered to the belly of the giant plane, which would fly them aloft, and once at an altitude of 35,000 feet or so, the rockets would drop and “air launch” to space.
Comments