With a back of more than 226 tonnes and a wingspan of absurd 117 metres, the world’s largest aircraft to date Saturday in the air at 18.20 local time from the air base’s Mojave Air and Space Port in California.
the Company behind the plane with the two hulls is raketproducenten Stratolaunch, which has designed the monstrous machine to fly at an altitude of ten kilometres, where the meaning is, that it must fire the rockets which go into orbit around the earth.
It was not, however, the plan of today’s flight, since you just had to test the aircraft’s performance for 150 minutes. It proved to be a successful one, which Stratolaunch’s CEO Jean Floyd of course was thrilled.
– Personally, it was an emotional moment for me to see this majestic bird fly, he said after the landing.
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Today’s test flight was a success. Photo: Gene Blevins/Ritzau Scanpix
today’s test flight went smoothly was confirmed by the test pilot Evan Thomas.
– the Flight itself was smooth, which is exactly what you will have that first flight should be. The wing as in the simulator, and as we predicted, it sounded from the test pilot.
Succesflyvningen comes just a few months after that Stratolaunch’s founder and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s death. He died in October at the age of just 65 years after having been affected by lymphoma since 1983.
Allen left a fortune of between 80 and 100 billion dollars, which went to charity.
– Without a doubt, he would have been exceptionally proud to see his plane on the wings. Even though he was not here today, whispered I ’thank you’, said Jean Floyd.
‘He would have been exceptionally proud,’ said Jean Floyd of the late Paul Allen.
