Stratolaunch Systems set to Launch World's Biggest Aircraft

BENGALURU: Stratolaunch Systems, a unit of Microsoft co-owner Paul Allen’s Vulcan aerospace, is all set to reveal the world’s biggest airplane in the coming months. The herculean air-craft, which is almost as big as a football field, is custom built to launch satellites into the orbit.

Allen plans to position the plane in a manner by which satellites can be quickly and directly delivered into very precise orbits, without launch range scheduling issues and weather-related delays.

The Stratolaunch is a twin-fuselage craft that integrates engines, landing gear and other such parts from a couple of Boeing 747 jets coupled with a frame, wings and skin handmade of lightweight composites. It has wingspan of 385ft, and fuselage length of 238ft.

Weighing at a massive 5, 44,311kg, the craft can reach a maximum speed of 450knots (roughly 850km/hr). The plane is designed to carry a rocket and payload with a combined weight of up to 550,000 pounds.

Initially, when the plane was announced in 2011, Elon musk’s Space X was hired to provide one of its Falcon rockets to catapult low and medium class payloads into orbit after they were dropped by the Stratolaunch carrier aircraft. But the companies fell out and Orbital ATK was approached for a booster rocket. But this too fell through due to technical issues.

Now that the aircraft is almost complete, the company is in talks with numerous rocket firms to forge a partnership that would provide them with launch services for small and medium-sized satellites.

Almost 75% of the assembly work is complete, with only the engines, landing gear and one tail section yet to be installed, which they expect to accomplish by the end of this year. Commercial services of the airplane are expected to commence by 2020.

Read Also: Infosys 2020 Goals: $20bn Revenue, $80,000 Revenue per Employee
Dell Sells Software Group To Finance EMC Acquisition