Holy Smokes! Check Out The World's Largest Airplane.

Howdy folks and greetings from the Great Plains of North Texas!

I was fascinated when I saw this giant airplane and thought you might enjoy some photos of it as well. It's the brainchild of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. The purpose of such a huge plane is a practical one:

It costs a bloody fortune to get rockets into space with 80% of the weight being rocket fuel whose rockets are jettisoned when a high altitude is reached.

A big problem solved

But with a big plane like Allen designed, called The Stratolaunch, rockets and even space ships can be carried and launched from 35,000 ft, therefore eliminating the need and cost of fuel rockets.

This dramatically increases efficiency and drastically cuts costs. I don't know how long they've been working on it or how much it cost but I think it's going to pay for itself rather quickly.

It's amazing what man can accomplish with the right team and unlimited funding.

The size if this thing is jaw-dropping! It has a 385 foot wingspan:

The left cockpit is empty, the pilots and flight engineer are in the right one and the cockpit is the same as a Boeing 747:

This thing has 28 wheels! This shot reminds of a county road repair crew where 10 guys stand around watching another guy with a shovel. lol. But it starts to give you an idea of the size.

Here she is from the rear:

Here's a great shot of the early stage as it's being built:

They recently had their first test flight and it was a beautiful success. This shot shows it soaring over her home in Mohave, California. They only flew up to 17,000 ft in this first flight.

Another view of that first flight:

Here she is landing:

This image shows the concept of carrying a spaceship or rocket under her wings:

And this shows the plan for launching from her highest altitude:

Pretty soon this will be routine, launching space craft, rockets and so forth. Who knows what they can do with this? Might not want to know. Here's Paul Allen:

He passed away last year but his dream and legacy is carrying on, funded by a trust he set up.

The man was certainly a great visionary. In 2004 he funded a spaceship project called SpaceShipOne and it successfully made flights into space, it reached altitudes of 377,591 feet or 71.5 miles!

The program cost 25 million dollars but was a breakthrough in technology. Here's what that ship looked like:

Here's one last shot of the Stratolaunch, it gives you some sense of the mammoth size!

All photos are from cnet.com

Thanks for stopping by folks, God bless you all!
-jonboy
Texas