{"id":18800,"date":"2017-09-19T18:18:24","date_gmt":"2017-09-19T10:18:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/billionaire-paul-allens-stratolaunch-space-venture-fires-up-its-engines-all-six-of-em\/"},"modified":"2017-09-19T18:18:24","modified_gmt":"2017-09-19T10:18:24","slug":"billionaire-paul-allens-stratolaunch-space-venture-fires-up-its-engines-all-six-of-em","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/billionaire-paul-allens-stratolaunch-space-venture-fires-up-its-engines-all-six-of-em\/","title":{"rendered":"Billionaire Paul Allen\u2019s Stratolaunch space venture fires up its engines \u2013 all six of \u2019em"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_363532\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-363532\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-363532\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/170919-stratolaunch-630x420.jpg\" alt=\"Stratolaunch engines\" width=\"630\" height=\"420\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/170919-stratolaunch-630x420.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/170919-stratolaunch-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/170919-stratolaunch-1260x840.jpg 1260w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/170919-stratolaunch.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-363532\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Stratolaunch plane has three engines on each wing. (Stratolaunch Photo \/ Dylan Schwartz)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The world\u2019s biggest airplane hit another milestone this week with the completion of the first phase of engine testing at California\u2019s Mojave Air and Space Port, according to Stratolaunch, the space venture backed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.<\/p>\n<p>Stratolaunch\u2019s CEO, Jean Floyd, reported today that all six of the plane\u2019s Pratt &amp; Whitney turbofan engines were started up for the first time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur aircraft is one step closer to providing convenient, reliable and routine access to low Earth orbit,\u201d Floyd said in a news release.<\/p>\n<p>Allen founded Stratolaunch in 2011 with the goal of creating an air-launch system that can drop rockets from an airplane in midflight and send payloads into virtually any orbital inclination. Because the system relies on an airplane rather than a fixed launch pad, Stratolaunch theoretically could make orbital deliveries without worrying so much about the weather.<\/p>\n<p>But to create the launch platform, Stratolaunch and its Mojave-based construction contractor, Scaled Composites, have to build and test a twin-fuselage airplane with an unprecedented 385-foot wingspan.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Stratolaunch Aircraft First Rollout (World\u2019s Largest Plane by Wingspan)\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6ez2MDjRbzs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The landing gear and engines have been taken from Boeing 747 jets and added to the carbon-composite airframe. The plane was rolled out for the first time this May and is going through months\u2019 worth of on-the-ground testing.<\/p>\n<p>Floyd said the engine tests were conducted in three steps, starting with a \u201cdry motor\u201d phase in which an auxiliary power unit was used to charge each engine. In the second phase, fuel was introduced into the system for a \u201cwet motor.\u201d The third phase involved starting up each engine, one at a time, and having it idle.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn these initial tests, each of the engines operated as expected,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Floyd said all six of the plane\u2019s fuel tanks were filled independently to ensure proper operation and validate the tanks\u2019 seals.<\/p>\n<p>The team has also begin testing the flight control system. \u201cSo far we have exercised the full limits of motion and rate of deflection of control surfaces on the wing and stabilizers,\u201d Floyd wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Over the next few months, the engines will be tested at higher power levels and varying configurations, leading up to the start of taxi tests, Floyd said.<\/p>\n<p>In March, Allen told GeekWire that he hoped the plane would be flying by the end of this year, but Floyd\u2019s description of the test schedule suggested that getting the plane in the air could take longer than that.<\/p>\n<p>Stratolaunch has said it plans to begin commercial operations by 2020. The company has a rocket partnership with Orbital ATK, which is due to be acquired by Northrop Grumman. It\u2019s not fully clear whether that acquisition could affect Stratolaunch\u2019s plans, but for what it\u2019s worth, Stratolaunch development partner Scaled Composites is a Northrop Grumman subsidiary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Stratolaunch plane has three engines on each wing. (Stratolaunch Photo \/ Dylan Schwartz) The world\u2019s biggest airplane hit another milestone this week with the completion of the first phase of engine testing at California\u2019s Mojave Air and Space Port, according to Stratolaunch, the space venture backed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. Stratolaunch\u2019s CEO, Jean [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[291,2672,2489],"class_list":["post-18800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-commercial-space","tag-paul-allen","tag-stratolaunch"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18800"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18800\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}