THE world’s widest plane has successfully completed its second test flight.
Stratolaunch’s Roc plane is the world’s largest aircraft by wingspan.
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Stratolaunch’s chief operating officer Zachary Krevor said on Thursday: “Today’s flight, at first review, has appeared extremely successful.
“We accomplished all test points as desired, we have not seen anything anomalous, and we are very pleased with the condition of the aircraft upon landing.”
The Roc plane was tested over the Mojave Desert in California.
It reached a peak altitude of 2.6 miles just after 10:30am ET yesterday.
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Six engines kept it flying for three hours and 14 minutes before it touched down on an equally huge runway.
The plane is designed to operate under a three person crew which includes a pilot, co-pilot and flight engineer.
It looks like it has two cockpits but a pilot and co-pilot only sit on the right side of the plane.
The left nose is unpressurised and is said to contain flight data systems.
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The carrier plane has a wingspan of 385 feet.
That makes it almost twice the width of a Boeing 747.
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The Roc plane is being designed to be an airborne space launch platform.
It will carry hypersonic flight rockets up into the low Earth orbit.
This will include Stratolaunch’s fully reusable and autonomous Talon-A hypersonic aircraft.
The Roc aircraft still has more tests to go before it will be trusted to carry anything though.
Stratolaunch Roc plane facts
The Roc plane is the largest in the world in terms of wingspan.
It’s wings span across 385 feet.
It’s designed to launch rockets into space.
The plane is 238 feet long and 50 feet tall.
It has 6 engines.
It only requires a pilot, co-pilot and flight engineer for take off.
The plane has 28 wheels.
It made it’s first flight in April 2019.
It’s second took place on April 29 2021 and last just over three hours.
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In other news, China appears to be developing a knockoff version of SpaceX’s next-generation rocket as it moves to enter a new space race with the US.
Nasa completed the first controlled flight on another planet following the lift-off of its Mars helicopter-drone, Ingenuity.
And, a supersonic plane that could fly you from London to New York in an hour is in the works.
Would you travel on the world’s biggest aircraft? Let us know in the comments…
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This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk
