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Microsoft Co-Founder Paul Allen Unveils World's Biggest Plane (seattletimes.com)

Frosty Piss quotes a report from The Seattle Times: The huge Stratolaunch finally rolled out of its hangar in Mojave, Calif., Wednesday for the first time. Built by Paul Allen's Scaled Composites, the twin hulled monster will go through months of ground tests before a first flight. Jean Floyd, chief executive at Stratolaunch Systems, said in a statement that the empty airplane, powered by six used 747 engines, weighs approximately 500,000 pounds. The jet will have a three-person crew: pilot, co-pilot and flight engineer in the flight deck of the starboard fuselage, while the port fuselage cockpit is empty and unpressurized. Stratolaunch is intended to carry a rocket slung beneath the central part of the wing, between the two fuselages, and release it at 35,000 feet. The concept is that the rocket will then launch into space and deliver satellites into orbit.

3 of 147 comments (clear)

  1. How about an actual website? by drinkypoo · · Score: 5, Informative

    TFA doesn't load at all if you don't permit Javascript, because it is not a web page. Wired is offering an actual web page on the same subject, which is more suitable for linking to a site for nerds like Slashdot, where noscript is common.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  2. Construction materials? by Cheviot · · Score: 5, Funny

    Is it made of spruce?

  3. Re:Snap! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yeh because nobody could posdibly calculate the stresses, and bulid an appropriate spar. Even for a shit poster, you are a dumb cunt.