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Microsoft Co-Founder Built the World's Largest Plane to Launch Rockets Into Space

MULTIZ321

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Microsoft Co-Founder Built the World's Largest Plane to Launch Rockets Into Space
By Sean O'Kane/ Science/ Tech/ Transportation/ The Verge/ theverge.com

"Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has spent the last six years working on a giant aircraft capable of launching rockets to space. Today, his company Stratolaunch Systems literally rolled that plane out of its hangar in the Mojave Desert for the first time ever.

It’s called the Stratolaunch aircraft, and it’s massive. The plane has a 385-foot wingspan, which makes it the largest in the world by that metric. It weighs about 500,000 pounds dry, but that can swell to a maximum takeoff weight of 1.3 million pounds. Stratolaunch moves all that weight across the ground on 28 wheels, and eventually will carry its cargo through the air thanks to six 747 aircraft engines.

Why so big? Allen plans to use the Stratolaunch plane as an airborne rocket launcher. Instead of taking off from a launchpad, which requires lots of fuel, Stratolaunch will give rockets a head start by first carrying them up into the sky. It’s already got one customer, too — private spaceflight company Orbital ATK inked a deal with Stratolaunch Systems last October to use the giant plane as a launcher for its Pegasus XL rocket, which is used to send small satellites into space...."

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Photo: Stratolaunch Systems


Richard
 

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Wow! Just Wow!
 

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think i was most amazed that this thing can lift over 500,000lbs worth of payload!
 

Blues

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think i was most amazed that this thing can lift over 500,000lbs worth of payload!

Agreed. Also, I would love to see this thing in action. Typically, launching a rocket from an airplane (dating back to the days of the Bell X-1) involves dropping the payload and then making a sudden, almost violent maneuver to get out of the way before the rocket engines ignite. I wonder what this behemoth can handle in terms of sudden maneuvers. I'd pay to see that testing, though.
 

x3 skier

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It's just a REALLY bigger version that Rutan developed to do the X-Prize, White Knight and Spaceship One.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceShipOne

If it ever gets off the ground higher than the Spruce Goose, I'll be surprised although 6 JT9-D's have a lot of push. As we used to say back in the day, anything can fly (for a while) with enough thrust.

BTW, the noses of the fuselages look like they had some brake problems. :D

Cheers
 
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x3 skier

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Agreed. Also, I would love to see this thing in action. Typically, launching a rocket from an airplane (dating back to the days of the Bell X-1) involves dropping the payload and then making a sudden, almost violent maneuver to get out of the way before the rocket engines ignite. I wonder what this behemoth can handle in terms of sudden maneuvers. I'd pay to see that testing, though.

Actually, no violent maneuver is usually required as the launch vehicle is well clear prior to the rocket firing after separation. Standard rate turns combined with altitude separation will allow a lot of clearance. Watch films of the B-52 and X-15 drops. OTOH, a half a million ton rocket is a different beast:cool:

Cheers
 

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its certainly going to be quite a sight to see it being used for the first time!
 

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BTW, the noses of the fuselages look like they had some brake problems. :D
I'm speculating that there are radar containing domes that cover those blunt noses- or maybe stiletto or jousting poles? :)
 

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Billionaire Paul Allen's Stratolaunch Space Venture Fires Up Its Engines - All Six of 'Em
By Alan Boyle/ Space & Science/ GeekWire/ geekwire.com

"The world’s biggest airplane hit another milestone this week with the completion of the first phase of engine testing at California’s Mojave Air and Space Port, according to Stratolaunch, the space venture backed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.

Stratolaunch’s CEO, Jean Floyd, reported today that all six of the plane’s Pratt & Whitney turbofan engines were started up for the first time.

“Our aircraft is one step closer to providing convenient, reliable and routine access to low Earth orbit,” Floyd said in a news release.

Allen founded Stratolaunch in 2011 with the goal of creating an air-launch system that can drop rockets from an airplane in midflight and send payloads into virtually any orbital inclination. Because the system relies on an airplane rather than a fixed launch pad, Stratolaunch theoretically could make orbital deliveries without worrying so much about the weather.

But to create the launch platform, Stratolaunch and its Mojave-based construction contractor, Scaled Composites, have to build and test a twin-fuselage airplane with an unprecedented 385-foot wingspan...."

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The Stratolaunch plane has three engines on each wing. (Stratolaunch Photo / Dylan Schwartz)


Richard
 
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