Big planes – woohoo.

Say hello to the Stratolaunch, the world’s largest airplane.

It’s been designed with the purpose of releasing rockets that will carry satellites into space, so you know it’s not mucking around, but let’s run through the stats via CNN:

[It] has a 385-foot wingspan [117 metres], features six engines used by the Boeing 747, stands 50 feet tall [15 metres] and can carry more than 500,000 pounds [227 tonnes] of payload.

And it has those 28 wheels.

It’s not the longest plane, an honour that belongs to Antonov An-225, but it crushes the opposition in just about every other field.

The baby of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, the Stratolaunch will still take off from a runway like a commercial airplane:

It will fly to the approximate cruising altitude of a commercial airliner before launching a launch vehicle. “As the launch vehicle rockets into orbit, Stratolaunch will fly back to a runway landing for reloading, refueling and reuse,” Allen says.

Allen’s Vulcan Aerospace has worked with aerospace pioneer Burt Rutan’s company, Scaled Composites, on the ambitious project.

If y’all offering one-way tickets to another planet I’m game.

[sources:cnn&newatlas]