Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen unveiled the world’s largest aircraft on Wednesday.

The massive plane rolled out by Allen’s aerospace firm, Stratolaunch Systems, features the longest wingspan of any aircraft ever built, according to Popular Mechanics.

With a wingspan of 385 feet, the six-engine plane will be larger than Howard Hughes’ 1947 H-4 Hercules, known as the ‘Spruce Goose,’ and the Antonov An-225, a Soviet-era cargo plane originally built to transport the Buran space shuttle that is currently the world’s largest aircraft.

The Stratolaunch is an aircraft that is designed to carry rockets between its two fuselages.

In 2011, the project’s cost was initially estimated to be at $300million, though there is no word as to the updated figures.

After the plane reaches altitude, it would then drop the launch vehicle, which will subsequently fire its boosters and launch into space from the air.

Images of the mammoth plane, nicknamed the ‘Roc,’ were released Wednesday. It shows the plane emerging from its hangar in California’s Mojave Desert.

The plane was built by Scaled Composites, an aerospace company founded by Allen’s partner in the Stratolaunch project, Burt Rutan.

The Stratolaunch weights approximately 500,000 pounds without any cargo. It is designed to carry a maximum takeoff weight of 1.3million pounds

The plane rolls around with the aid of 28 wheels. Once airborne, it is powered by six 747 aircraft engines

Traditionally, satellites and other aircraft have been launched into space from a launchpad

The Stratolaunch, on the other hand, will enable rockets to have a ‘head start’ since they will be carried into the sky before they launch into space.

Last year, Stratolaunch signed a deal with aerospace and defense firm Orbital ATK. Under terms of the deal, the Stratolaunch will propel Orbital’s Pegasus XL rocket, which is used to send small satellites into space

Allen’s move coincides with a surge of new businesses planning to sell internet access, Earth imagery, climate data and other services from networks of hundreds of satellites in low-altitude orbits around Earth

The advantage of Allen’s (above) approach will be the ability to position the plane so satellites can be directly delivered into very precise orbits and do so quickly, without launch range scheduling issues and weather-related delays

Allen made his fortune alongside Bill Gates. The two men co-founded Microsoft, which changed the way the world uses personal computers

The idea is for the Stratolaunch Carrier is to act as a giant air pad in the sky, allowing payloads to reach space faster and at a lower cost than existing technologies (artist’s impression pictured)

Each of the twin fuselages of the Stratolaunch Carrier aircraft is 238 feet (72 metres) long is supported by 12 main landing gear wheels and two nose gear wheels (artist’s impression pictured)

The Stratolaunch, on the other hand, will enable rockets to have a ‘head start’ since they will be carried into the sky before they launch into space.

But his vision is different from what Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic and other companies have for building commercial highways to space.

Musk’s goal is to fly people to Mars. Bezos is developing low-cost, reusable rockets with the goal of moving energy-intensive, heavy industry off Earth. Branson is focused on space tourism and a small satellite launcher.

The Stratolaunch also has a longer wingspan than the Antonov An-225, a Soviet-era cargo plane originally built to transport the Buran space shuttle. The Antonov An-225 Mriya is seen above at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad, India

The advantage of Allen’s approach will be the ability to position the plane so satellites can be directly delivered into very precise orbits and do so quickly, without launch range scheduling issues and weather-related delays, Chuck Beames, who oversees Allen’s space ventures, said.

Rather than transporting heavy cargo inside a main body section, Stratolaunch is a twin-fuselage craft that incorporates engines, landing gear, avionics and other parts from a pair of Boeing 747 jets coupled with a frame, wings and skin handmade of lightweight composites.

The aircraft will reach a maximum speed of 460 knots, 530 mph (850 km/h) before launching its payload (artist’s impression pictured)

Initially, the system is intended to deliver satellites weighing up to about 13,500lbs (6,124 kg) into orbits between 112 miles and 1,243 miles (180 km and 2000 km) above Earth (artist’s impression pictured)

Designed and built by Northrop Grumman Corp’s Scaled Composites, the plane is similar in form and function to Scaled’s aircraft built to ferry spaceships into the air and release them for independent rocket rides beyond the atmosphere, a service Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic intends to offer to paying passengers.

Stratolaunch plans a similar service for satellites, particularly the low-Earth orbiting multi-hundred member constellations under development by companies including SpaceX and Google’s Terra Bella to provide internet access, Earth imagery and other data.

But Stratolaunch will offer quick and precise satellite positioning, a service that will set it apart from competitors.

These satellite networks, based on low-cost spacecraft, are the fastest-growing segment of the global satellite industry which reported more than $208billion in revenue 2015, according to a Satellite Industry Association report.

See video simulation the aircraft below:

 

Source: Dailymail.co.uk

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