Microsoft Co-Founder Paul Allen Preps World’s Largest Aircraft For Future Deployment

Short Bytes: Originally supposed to take off in 2016 but delayed, Microsoft’s Paul Allen has now provided a sneak preview of the world’s largest aircraft. Named the Stratolaunch, it is currently the largest all-composite plane that has ever been built and to boast its massive size, the plane is complemented with six Boeing 747 engines. That is definitely a mouthful of engines, and the size of the aircraft itself will be able to trump any plane that’s pitted against it.

When you hear about large airplanes, the term ‘Boeing’ certainly comes to your thoughts, but Microsoft’s Paul Allen is eager to change your perspective on this matter. The co-founder of the software giant has laid out a tweet from his official Twitter handle, detailing that the Stratolaunch will be undergoing a fuel test.

Currently, Stratolaunch is the biggest all-composite plane that has ever been built and we’d like to share some numbers with you that will definitely convince you regarding its massive size. Starting off, the plane has a payload of 500,000 pounds as well as a functional range of 2,000 nautical miles. With so many engines underneath the hood, the Stratolaunch will certainly be touting a massive fuel tank, but Allen did not disclose the maximum capacity of the tank.

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Allen has not disclosed what purpose the aircraft will be used for, but it looks like we will get to know about this in the near future. As for the plane’s construction, it is being made by the famous aerospace engineer Burt Rutan and his company Scaled Composites. The location at which this is taking place is at the Mojave Air and Space Port in the Californian desert.

.@Stratolaunch came out of the hangar for fuel testing. More pictures soon! pic.twitter.com/RCNgSpgG6W

— Paul Allen (@PaulGAllen) May 31, 2017

Unfortunately, there is a little twist in the story; the Stratolaunch expects to be fully operational by the end of this decade. This means that we could wait as long as 10 years for the aircraft to frequently take off from the ground. While we complain about this, let us remind ourselves that it is no easy task to test and commandeer a huge aircraft like this so being patient is the key here.

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