A few days ago, what is considered the largest airplane on Earth made its second flight.
The Stratolaunch aircraft!
This aircraft is developed by the company with the same name, Stratolaunch. From what I have been able to find of information, this aircraft is one of three modules that make up a mobile launch system that this company is developing. The company after that first flight in 2019, two years ago now, underwent a change of ownership process and it was thought that the project would no longer be completed but it seems that those thoughts were wrong.
The Stratolaunch aircraft flew again.
With a wingspan of 117 and a weight of 520 tons (including fuel), the Stratolaunch aircraft can carry up to approximately 230 tons. Of course, in order to reach the speed required to lift that much weight, it needs a runway at least 3.2 kilometers long.
That's really impressive!
By the way! I can't forget to say that Stratolaunch company was allied with Space X and Elon Musk at some point in the early 2010s but the partnership dissolved in 2012 due to certain difference of interests.
And well, after all the excitement about this flight I have to say something. I always imagined that in the year 2021 it would be normal to have flying cars and all the things I saw when I was a kid in "The Jetsons".
I must not say that I am disappointed (well a little bit yes) but I realize (once again) that the technological and scientific development is not as fast as sometimes we can imagine and to achieve the simplest thing can take up to hundreds of years and more. But if what we have in 2021 is a huge airplane soaring through the air ... I'm not complaining. It's what we have and I'm still amazed.