The world's largest wingspan aircraft was built by Scaled Composites LLC (Mojave, California, USA) and Stratolaunch (Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.) and completed its first flight on April 13, 2019. During the flight, the team conducted tests to determine the specific processing quality of the design.
The plane flew on the runway in Mojave, California at 6.58 p.m. Pacific Time. The aircraft, piloted by Evan Thomas and Chris Guarente, flew 149 minutes and reached a top speed of 165 knots before landing safely at 9:27 Pacific time.
Scaled Composites has been working with Stratolaunch to design, build and test the world's largest composite aircraft since 2011. Scaled said that Paul Allen's mission to Stratolaunch was to develop an aerial launch platform to make it easier, more reliable and routine to enter space, and the aircraft continues to perform this task.
The Stratolaunch aircraft, the Scaled Model 351, is a dual fuselage launch platform for delivering payloads into multiple orbits and tilted spaces in one mission. According to Scaled, the large aircraft project is an idea that Burt Rutan has been playing for more than 20 years, with various designs being explored. Prior to the final contract, Scaled worked to validate manufacturing costs by building demonstrations, reducing the cost of materials labor to man-hours. This factor drove the overall design of the aircraft: flat fuselage, mostly straight wings.
"The Scaled team excels at solving the toughest problems in the aviation industry. In our 37-year history, we have tested an average of one new aircraft per year," said Cory Bird, president of Scaled Composites. "With Stratolaunch, we first reached another aviation by flying the world's largest all-composite aircraft, and we are getting closer and closer to increasing the reach of space launches."
"Northrop Grumman's Scaled Composites team once again sets new aeronautical standards for the first flight of Stratolaunch aircraft. Scaled's design, construction and testing capabilities are second to none," said Northrop Grumman, Vice President, Aerospace Systems Scott Winship said.