Stratolaunch's Roc as Flown

src: here

Stratolaunch's giant plane, the Roc, has flown for the first time. The aircraft was the brain child of Burt Rutan and funded by Paul Allen, the late Microsoft cofounder. The intent has been to build an aircraft that can carry very large payloads, more than an USAF C-5M. The primary payload was intended to be rockets: Rutan and Allen wanted the aircraft to be a carrier of rockets and release them from aircraft to then blast their way into orbit. This was intended to be Paul Allen's entry into the great, silicon valley space race between Musk, Bezos and Allen.

There were plans to flight test the Roc, as the plane is called, this summer. However, the aircraft was damaged in a hangar incident and the taxi runs seemed to give the impression the aircraft had issues nearly veering off the runway. The company took a break and addressed the issues. As of the time of writing, the aircraft is still airborne and was reported as circling at 16,000 ft (4,800 m).

Unfortunately, Paul Allen has passed away due to cancer and he was Stratolaunch's primary funding source. The company has since scaled back its plans to design and build its own rockets and spaceplane to be launched from the aircraft. It remains to be seen what the ultimate use the Roc will be put to.

However, it should be kept in mind, it would be highly unlikely the company would keep functioning without a potential customer. Who was the Roc? We shall see.

Update: The Roc has landed safely.