{"id":19349,"date":"2016-06-19T19:11:04","date_gmt":"2016-06-19T11:11:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/paul-allens-stratolaunch-lifts-veil-on-worlds-biggest-plane-a-giant-bet-on-a-new-way-to-space\/"},"modified":"2016-06-19T19:11:04","modified_gmt":"2016-06-19T11:11:04","slug":"paul-allens-stratolaunch-lifts-veil-on-worlds-biggest-plane-a-giant-bet-on-a-new-way-to-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/paul-allens-stratolaunch-lifts-veil-on-worlds-biggest-plane-a-giant-bet-on-a-new-way-to-space\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Allen\u2019s Stratolaunch lifts veil on world\u2019s biggest plane \u2014 a giant bet on a new way to space"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Stratolaunch
This view of Stratolaunch Systems\u2019 hangar at Mojave Air and Space Port in California shows the massive airplane\u2019s left-side fuselage and scaffolding. At least six people are in the picture. To spot them, click on the image and look for the red circles in an enlarged version. (Credit: Vulcan Inc.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MOJAVE, Calif.<\/strong> \u2013 When you walk into the place where Seattle software billionaire Paul Allen\u2019s Stratolaunch Systems is building the world\u2019s biggest airplane, it feels as if you\u2019re stepping into the Starship Enterprise\u2019s construction zone.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s jaw-dropping when you walk into that hangar,\u201d said Chuck Beames, Stratolaunch\u2019s executive director and president of Vulcan Aerospace, during a rare tour last week.<\/p>\n

The plane\u2019s wing, taking shape inside a 103,000-square-foot hangar at the Mojave Air and Space Port, stands three stories off the ground and measures 385 feet from tip to tip. That\u2019s three times longer than the distance of the Wright Brothers\u2019 first powered flight in 1903. If the Enterprise is ever built to its \u201cStar Trek\u201d TV dimensions, now or in the 23rd century, the starship would be only a few dozen feet wider.<\/p>\n

\"Chuck
Chuck Beames is president of Vulcan Aerospace and executive director of Stratolaunch Systems. (GeekWire photo by Alan Boyle)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It doesn\u2019t take long for the numbers \u2013 and the view \u2013 to boggle the mind. But there\u2019s another side to the Stratolaunch saga: What\u2019s Paul Allen up to? Stratolaunch is designed to serve as a flying platform for sending satellites into orbit, but who will provide the air-launched rockets? What niche will Stratolaunch fill alongside SpaceX, United Launch Alliance, Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic and other space companies?<\/p>\n

Like the plane, Paul Allen\u2019s vision isn\u2019t quite ready for its full reveal. But five years after its founding, Stratolaunch Systems is providing glimpses behind the veil.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Allen said Stratolaunch and other efforts to expand access to low Earth orbit hold \u201crevolutionary potential\u201d similar to that brought by the PC revolution in the 1980s and the rise of the Web and smartphones in the 1990s.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen such access to space is routine, innovation will accelerate in ways beyond what we can currently imagine,\u201d the Microsoft co-founder said. \u201cThat\u2019s the thing about new platforms: When they become easily available, convenient and affordable, they attract and enable other visionaries and entrepreneurs to realize more new concepts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beames emphasized that Stratolaunch is meant to be a money-maker as well as a manifestation of Allen\u2019s technological vision. He said the air-launch system would be \u201cespecially valuable\u201d for sending up hundreds of small networked satellites for communication or Earth imaging.<\/p>\n