Stratolaunch flies again
Posted: Fri Apr 30, 2021 3:52 pm
With a wingspan stretching to 117 metres, wider than the length of a football pitch, the Stratolaunch plane rose to 14,000 feet and reached a top speed of 199mph test flight on Thursday.
"We are airborne,” the company tweeted at around 8.30am local time, as the plane's six-engines propelled it into the sky above the Southern California desert.
The plane's 28 wheels touched down just over three hours later.
Stratolaunch was started in 2011 by Burt Rutan and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who passed away before the plane's first test flight took place in April 2019.