The world’s biggest aeroplane from Stratolaunch took its first flight on Saturday, from the Mojave Air and Space Port in Mojave, California shortly after 10 AM ET. The aeroplane is a 5,00,000 pounds heavy aircraft, which has been built to launch rockets to the Earth’s orbit from the air.
The aeroplane has a 385-foot wingspan, with the capacity of flying to an altitude of 35,000 feet. The plane has been built to help the rockets self launch them from the air to space. For the test flight, the plane did not carry any rocket with it and went to an altitude of 15000 feet reaching a speed limit of 189mph. After flying smoothly for 150 minutes, the flight landed safely.
“The flight itself was smooth, which is exactly what you want a first flight to be. It flew very much as we had simulated and as we predicted,” said test pilot Evan Thomas. He further added, “The systems on the aeroplane ran like a watch.”
Though during the test flight, the aeroplane did not carry any rockets with it, the company intends to take at least a 250-ton rocket along with a satellite to the stratosphere, i.e. to an altitude of 35,000 feet, soon in the coming future. In fact, the company has signed a contract with Northrop Grumman, to take its Pegasus XL rocket to space with the newly launched aeroplane.
This dual-fuselage aeroplane has got six Pratt & Whitney engines and 28-wheel landing gear. The maximum take-off weight for this aeroplane is 1.3 million pounds. In the past years, the company was planning to carry the SpaceX’s modified falcon rockets to space, but the partnership could not last long.
It has been almost eight years since the company has been working on this aeroplane and on the launch, the company constantly kept on remembering the founder of Stratolaunch and the co-founder of Microsoft, Paul Allen, who died last year in October.
“Without a doubt, he would have been exceptionally proud to see his aircraft take flight. Even though he wasn’t there today, as the plane lifted gracefully from the runway I did whisper a ‘thank you’ to Paul for allowing me to be a part of this remarkable achievement,” said the Stratolaunch CEO Jean Floyd.
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