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.
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.
Yashica is a Software Engineer turned Content Writer, who loves to write on social causes and expertise in writing technical stuff. She loves to watch movies and explore new places. She believes that you need to live once before you die. So experimenting with her life and career choices, she is trying to live her life to the fullest.
The Boeing Company is one of the biggest names in the pioneering of aero products. The company derived its name from the surname of its founder William Edward Boeing, who was an American timber businessman. The company has an old history, as it was founded almost 102 years ago, on 15 July 1916, in Seattle, Washington, U.S. The founder and the former CEO of the company, William Boeing, had an immense interest in the aircrafts, which he developed when he first time saw a manned flying machine during the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, in Seattle, in 1909.
After the incident, Boeing himself joined the Glenn L. Martin Flying School in Los Angeles to learn flying. He even purchased a plane for himself from Martin’s. The idea of manufacturing his first plane hit his mind when he was unable to get the replacement for the damaged parts of his newly purchased aircraft from Martin’s. Hence with the help of his friend Cdr. George Conrad Westervelt, he built an amphibian biplane, the B & W Seaplane.
In 1910, William Boeing bought Heath’s shipyard in Seattle, where he founded The Boeing Company, his first aeroplane factory, on July 15, 1916, with the name Pacific Aero Products Co. Before founding the company, William owned business of timber. So his experience with the wood helped him a lot in the Airplane manufacturing business.
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On 9 May 1917, the company was rebranded as Boeing Airplane Company. In the same year, it shipped its first 50 aeroplanes built for the US Navy for the first world war and moved its operations to its Boeing Plant1 located in the Washington state.
In 1919, the company manufactured the Boeing B-1 flying boat, which could carry two more passengers along with the pilot. The aircraft served as the international airmail from Seattle to Victoria, British Columbia, for eight long years. By the time, Boeing started manufacturing fighter planes for the U.S. Army Air Service. The early models of its fighter planes were PW-9 fighter and the Boeing P-12/F4B fighter.
Soon, Boeing’s Model 40 mail plane started operating between San Francisco and Chicago for the U.S. government, under the U.S. Post Office’s contract. In 1927, the company launched an airline named Boeing Air Transport and manufactured its first passenger plane Boeing 80 that took its first flight on 27 July 1928. The same year, the company went through a merger with the Pacific Air Transport.
In the early 30’s Boeing emerged as a leader in the all-metal aircraft construction and built a low-wing monoplane, named as Monomail, to carry mails. The Mononmail also became the basis of the Boeing YB-9 architecture. In 1932, the company brought the first all-metal monoplane fighter, Model 248, and in the next year Model 247, a standard passenger plane.
In 1938, the company built the largest passengers airliner, the Boeing 314 Clipper, to fly on transoceanic routes, under an agreement with Pan American World Airways. The plane had a capacity of 90 passengers in the day flight and of 40 passengers in the night flight. It took its first flight in June 1938 and started operating for regular passenger service from the U.S. to the U.K.
During the world II, Boeing won a contract to build the fighter planes for the U.S. Air Force. Almost all of the aircraft manufacturing companies cooperated at building them. They hired the family members of the soldiers who had gone to the war and built a large number of B-17 and B-29 bombers. The production had gone to a level that almost 350 planes were made in every month.
In 1947, Boeing built its first jet aircraft XB-47 followed by the successful launching of B-47 and B-52 bombers. It also started building the military jets, including the B-47 Stratojet and B-52 Stratofortress, in the decade of 50s. Soon Boeing entered into the manufacturing of the intercontinental missile, using the short-range missile technology.
In the mid-50s, the company started the manufacturing of the small turbine engines and became a leader in the same. Boeing built 2,461 engines before production ceased in April 1968.
The decade of the 50s and 60s were the decades of manufacturing jetliners for Boeing. It launched the 707, 720 as well as 727 commercial jetliners in those years. The 727 was the first commercial jetliner to reach 1,000 sales. Boeing’s twin-engine 737, become the best-selling commercial jet aircraft of all times.
In the 70s, the company faced a simultaneous decline and recession in the market. But by the mid of the 80s, the economic condition of the company started to improve, and it introduced new passenger airliners, the single-aisle 757, the larger, twin-aisle 767, and upgraded versions of the 737, with larger seating capacity.
Having been a part of the Apollo project, it also participated in other space programs and became the first contractor for the International Space Station program. In 1994, Boeing came up with the most modern, i.e., typical three-class layout aircraft, the twin-engine 777, with a seating capacity of 300-370 passengers.
In early 2000, the company purchased Hughes Electronics, in order to expand into the aerospace field. Boeing became the largest provider of rocket launch services to the U.S. government, through its joint venture, United Launch Alliance, with Lockheed Martin, in late 2006. Boeing also became the prime contractors in the U.S. military’s Future Combat Systems program.
Boeing revealed its Q4 profit of the year 2013 in January 2014, that was estimated to be about US$1.23 billion. In 2017, the company had 140,800 and made a revenue of US$93,392 million.
Yashica is a Software Engineer turned Content Writer, who loves to write on social causes and expertise in writing technical stuff. She loves to watch movies and explore new places. She believes that you need to live once before you die. So experimenting with her life and career choices, she is trying to live her life to the fullest.
China, on Saturday, successfully, completed the first takeoff and landing of its amphibious aeroplane, on water, at a reservoir in China’s central Hubei province. The plane is called the Kunlong AG600. Kunlong is a Chinese word, that means Water Dragon. The AG600 is the world’s biggest amphibious plane and has been built by China independently. The aircraft is one of the three largest aircraft of China, including the Y-20 military transport aircraft and the C-919 commercial passenger airliner. During the Saturday’s trial, the AG600 completed a 14-minute ride, successfully.
The Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) began the production of the prototype of the seaplane, in 2014, after China announced the AG600 program, in 2011. The aircraft was first unveiled in July 2016, in Zhuhai city of southern China. The Aircraft carried out its first trial flight, in August 2018, from the Zhuhai airport in the Guangdong province of China, to the Jingmen airport in Hubei province of China.
The aircraft possesses four WJ-6 turboprop engines, the Chinese-made versions of a Russian engine. It is 37 meters long, and the wings are 38.8 meters widespread. The plane can carry 50 people and can hold a maximum take-off weight of 59 tons on land, and 54 tons on the water. AVIC has claimed that the AG600 can stay airborne for up to 12 hours, and its cruising speed can reach up to 500 kilometres per hour. Without the refuelling, the operational range for the aircraft can be about 4,500 kilometres at max.
The production of the AG600 targets at bringing out the maritime search-and-rescue operations and the aerial fire-fighting operations. The aircraft requires a water depth of 2.5 meters for landing and take-off. And, is capable of taking off and land in waves up to 6.5 feet high. The AG600 can resist two-meter-high waves. The aircraft is useful for carrying supplies and military personnel, during any of the Chinese maritime military operations. However, China claims that the AG600 will only be a part of the marine monitoring and safety patrol, the development of the world’s largest amphibious aircraft has raised many eyebrows as well.
Yashica is a Software Engineer turned Content Writer, who loves to write on social causes and expertise in writing technical stuff. She loves to watch movies and explore new places. She believes that you need to live once before you die. So experimenting with her life and career choices, she is trying to live her life to the fullest.
