What is the world’s largest plane? I’ll give you a hint. Not the Boeing 747, 777, or Airbus A380.

The Stratolaunch project has been in the works for more than six years. It promises to expand the possibilities for space transportation.

Well, a football field is 100 yards long-or 300 feet. The Stratolaunch is 385 feet across. In other words, it’s bigger than a football field.

It would require more than 3 Tom Brady touchdown bombs to equal the size of the plane.

It’s a creation of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and Scaled Composites founder Burt Rutan, who created Stratolaunch Systems on December 13, 2011.

The goal was to develop an all-new air-launch-to-orbit system aimed at transforming space travel.

With two fuselages and three rockets attached, the Stratolaunch is certainly a uniquely designed specimen. Its wingspan of 385 feet makes it longer than any aircraft to date.

Although it has two cockpit sections, only the starboard side of the Stratolaunch is manned. The other just looks pretty.

The port side cockpit looks mighty inviting, except for the fact that it’s designed to remain empty.

Mark your calendar for sometime in 2019, unless of course the time has passed. It was announced on May 31st, 2017 that the Stratolaunch will perform its first official rocket launch in that year.
Of course, all must go well in the planning phase, but so far so good.

For the 2019 launch, the Stratolaunch will carry one Pegasus XL rocket.

Here’s what a Stratolaunch flight will look like. It will first carry a rocket for about 35,000 feet before disengaging and flying under its own power.
The rocket will separate from the aircraft as the Stratolaunch continues to climb through space.

The plane’s max takeoff weight is approximately 1.3 million pounds, so yes, it needs 28 wheels to get it off the ground.

Looks pretty standard, and that’s because it is.
This is actually the cockpit of a Boeing 747-400, which is what the Stratolaunch cockpit will look like. It will include a three person crew with a pair of pilots and a flight engineer.

The Stratolaunch has largely utilized components of the Boeing 747, including the avionics, landing gear, and flight decks.

After the testing phase, the Stratolaunch will take part in up to ten missions per year.

Courtesy: msn.news - The Telegraph - Sarah Knapton 29.06.19