The behemoth hit a top speed of 304 kilometers per hour and reached an altitude of 5,182 meters.
WASHINGTON: The world’s largest airplane – a Stratolaunch behemoth with two fuselages and six Boeing 747 engines – made its first test flight on Saturday in California.It is designed to carry into space, and drop, a rocket that would in turn ignite to deploy satellites.
It is supposed to provide a more flexible way to deploy satellites than vertical takeoff rockets because this way all you need is a long runway for takeoff.The aircraft is so big its wing span is longer than a football field, or about 1.5 times that of an Airbus A380.The plane flew Saturday for about two and a half hours, Stratolaunch said. Until now, it had just carried out tests on the ground.“What a fantastic first flight,” said Jean Floyd, CEO of Stratolaunch.
“Today’s flight furthers our mission to provide a flexible alternative to ground launched systems,” he added. Stratolaunch was financed by Paul Allen, a co-founder of Microsoft as a way to get into the market for launching small satellites.Subscribe to our newsletter and get news delivered to your mailbox.
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