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Stratolaunch, the World’s Largest Airplane is Up for Sale for $400M

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World’s biggest plane and the dream project of late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, Stratolaunch is for sale. The cost of the plane has been set to be $400 million by the holding company Vulcan Inc. reported an anonymous spokesperson.

stratolaunch
Image Source: technology.inquirer.net

Stratolaunch is the only biggest plane in the world and is manufactured by Stratolaunch Systems, a company founded by Paul Allen, after eight years of research and production process. It was a dream of Paul Allen to build a 5,00,000 pound plane, and noticeably, it has not even been two months when the plane took its first and only flight.

Based in the Mojave Air and Space Port in California, the giant aeroplane has a 385-foot wingspan, six engines, 28 wheels and has a capability to fly up to an altitude of 35,000 feet. The plane has been manufactured as a flying launchpad for rockets from where they can self lunch themselves, from the air to space. The plane had successfully completed its first flight in April, where it flew for over 150 minutes and reached an altitude of 15000 feet at a speed of 189mph.

According to the sources, Vulcan is already in talks with the British billionaire and the founder of Virgin Galactic, Richard Branson, about selling the plane. Another potential buyer for the plane includes Northrop Grumman, the company that is in an agreement with Stratolaunch to provide rockets for the plane’s air-launch operation. Though there have been no comments on the matter from either party as yet.

Along with the plane, the company would also be giving away the intellectual property and Mojave facilities to the buyer. But a price equal to $400 million is a big amount, and it seems even bigger when the scope of the success of the plane is unclear. Since there has been no such planes or such services, that can convince the buyers with the profits it may gain, it is natural for them to be sceptical about buying it.

The World’s Biggest Plane from Stratolaunch Completes its First Flight Successfully

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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.

stratolaunch
Image Source: fool.com

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.