Paul Allen showed off his new rocket-launching plane today, and it’s BIG

[EC]

Paul Allen's intriguing launch company, Vulcan Aerospace, has gone relatively quiet in recent years, and questions about the venture's viability have been increasing. But on Wednesday, the cofounder of Microsoft shared a new photo of the company's Stratolaunch airplane—the largest in the world—and it seems the company is moving forward.

The new plane is, in a word, bigly. The aircraft has 385-foot wingspan and, powered by six Pratt & Whitney engines used on Boeing 747 aircraft, has a maximum takeoff weight of 1.3 million pounds. The Stratolaunch's wingspan is the largest in history, blowing away the previous record-holder (Howard Hughes' Spruce Goose) by 65 feet. Vulcan Aerospace says its Stratolaunch airplane will have an operational range of 2,000 nautical miles. Serving as a reusable first stage for rocket launches, the Stratolaunch system will be capable of delivering payloads to multiple orbits and inclinations in a single mission.

Recently—perhaps on Wednesday, but the date was not made clear—the company moved the Stratolaunch aircraft out of its hangar at the Mojave Air & Space Port in the eponymous California desert. This was first time it had been moved outdoors, and Allen said the purpose was to conduct a "fueling test." This event marked the completion of the construction phase, the company later said, and the beginning of ground and eventually flight tests.

More: https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/05/paul-allen-showed-off-his-new-rocket-launching-plane-today-it-is-big/

Big is a mild understatement.

[Frank Cannon]

and questions about the venture's viability have been increasing.

Which is why this thing was rolled out and shown off. I'll bet a nickle it will not and cannot fly.

[DB]

and questions about the venture's viability have been increasing.

Which is why this thing was rolled out and shown off. I'll bet a nickle it will not and cannot fly.

What odds will you entertain? Burt Rutan isn't in the business of making planes that don't fly.

[EC]

Oh, it'll fly. No doubt about that. It'll even haul the payload it's supposed to, with only a 60% chance of breaking in half. It's the launching of the rocket that's going to rip it to pieces. Dropping a million pounds all at once is gonna make those wings flex so hard they wrap around the body.

[DB]

Oh, it'll fly. No doubt about that. It'll even haul the payload it's supposed to, with only a 60% chance of breaking in half. It's the launching of the rocket that's going to rip it to pieces. Dropping a million pounds all at once is gonna make those wings flex so hard they wrap around the body.

I think the scariest part is taking off. You are taking off essentially with a million pound bomb in the middle... Anything goes wrong and there's not a lot you can do to get far enough away from it...

[EC]

It's going to be like the old Vulcans. The frame groans on take off as it shifts to handle the weight. It's rather disconcerting.

[kevindavis007]

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[truth_seeker]

Why one big plane, versus two smaller ones?

[Frank Cannon]

What odds will you entertain? Burt Rutan isn't in the business of making planes that don't fly.

Burt is old. What are the odds that he is filling his pockets with the oodles of Microsoft cash while he dicks around with a silly contraption that has been made obsolete already by the reusable, land-able rocket the other company has developed.

[EC]

Why one big plane, versus two smaller ones?

Synchronisation. To carry a heavy payload with two smaller planes and then launch/drop it at altitude - I don't think the Red Devils could do it. That would take flying of a caliber that simply doesn't exist. It's not just the planes themselves, air has it's moods and tempers too, and you can have a dead calm in one spot and a 20 mph vertical wind 60 feet away.

[IsailedawayfromFR]

The gargantuan Stratolaunch carrier aircraft, built by Scaled Composites and nicknamed the "Roc," has the longest wingspan of any aircraft ever built: 385 feet from tip to tip. The six-engine mothership is designed to carry rockets between its two fuselages. Once at altitude, the mega-plane will drop the launch vehicle, which will then fire its boosters and launch to space from the air.

It's a new way of approaching spaceflight, reminiscent of the X-plane testing the Air Force did in the 1950s and 60s, and Paul Allen's company Stratolaunch Systems is leading the way. The long aircraft just rolled out of the Scaled Composites hangar for the first time earlier today, May 31. Fueling tests will begin in the coming days, followed by engine runs, taxi tests, and finally first flight.

Stratolaunch Systems is still working on the rocket models that will be dropped from the carrier aircraft, but in October 2016 the company said it would use modified Pegasus XL rockets built by Orbital ATK for the first tests. In preparation for today's rollout, Scaled Composites spent the past weeks disassembling a three-story scaffold that surrounded the aircraft during construction. The aircraft's full weight rested on its 28 wheels for the first time, allowing Scaled Composites to weigh the almost entirely composite plane for the first time. It came in at 500,000 lbs.


http://www.popularmechanics.com/flight/a26715/stratolaunch-rolls-out-of-hangar/?src=nl&mag=pop&list=nl_pnl_news&date=060117

Reminds me of Howard Hughes' Spruce Goose.

[Idiot]

It just doesn't look stable.

[Frank Cannon]

Paul Allen's Enormous Stratolaunch Carrier Aircraft Rolls Out of Hangar for First Time

This isn't it's first time out of the hangar. It was out earlier this week.....

http://www.gopbriefingroom.com/index.php/topic,265296.msg1343147.html#msg1343147

[IsailedawayfromFR]

Paul Allen's Enormous Stratolaunch Carrier Aircraft Rolls Out of Hangar for First Time

This isn't it's first time out of the hangar. It was out earlier this week.....

http://www.gopbriefingroom.com/index.php/topic,265296.msg1343147.html#msg1343147

A good reason to take it down, thanks.

[Smokin Joe]

It just doesn't look stable.

I would think there would be tremendous stresses on the central wing area, but I would also think the designers would take those into account. I'm surprised to not see the tail (elevators) linked as a continuous boom, and maybe that is what looks particularly odd to me.

[Joe Wooten]

Oh, it'll fly. No doubt about that. It'll even haul the payload it's supposed to, with only a 60% chance of breaking in half. It's the launching of the rocket that's going to rip it to pieces. Dropping a million pounds all at once is gonna make those wings flex so hard they wrap around the body.

It looks like Rutan took that into consideration. A rocket engine manufacturer I'm acquainted with says he's seen the structural calcs and..

I have seen the structural files. The fuselages are essentially landing gear holders and the centre wing is 3x as strong as it needs to be even considering jerk forces from a bad release. The design is valid. If they could use a dolly for liftoff and skids for landing they would save over 30% the mass and 50% the frontal area. Landing gear is a HUGE overhead.

 That design allows for motor ignition from the plane and relanding a non-deployed rocket for mil apps.

 Target altitude 50-80k depending on payload mass. Note many engines and huge wings. Not for long haul flights at all.

[InHeavenThereIsNoBeer]

Synchronisation. To carry a heavy payload with two smaller planes and then launch/drop it at altitude - I don't think the Red Devils could do it. That would take flying of a caliber that simply doesn't exist. It's not just the planes themselves, air has it's moods and tempers too, and you can have a dead calm in one spot and a 20 mph vertical wind 60 feet away.

Well, simple! They'd just use a strand of creeper!

[EC]

It looks like Rutan took that into consideration. A rocket engine manufacturer I'm acquainted with says he's seen the structural calcs and..

  Thank you.

Although it's not the central wing I'm too worried about - hardpoints are, for want of a better word, "settled science" - but the outer wings. They're going to flap hard when the rocket is dropped - being flexed up to the maximum (I'm guessing there's a 20 foot wingtip deflection at the bare minimum least with full load) then suddenly snapping back and inevitably overshooting? That's rough on the airframe, even rougher on the pilots trying to control the damned thing.