What It Was Like to Fly the 'Roc' -- Stratolaunch's Massive Rocket-Carrier Airplane
By Elizabeth Howell 3 hours ago
The pilot behind Stratolaunch's first flight of the world's largest plane on April 13 said the complex all-composite aircraft ran like clockwork through the 2.5-hour flight, a first for this kind of aircraft.
The plane — nicknamed Roc — made its unannounced flight from the Mojave Air and Space Port in California. It's the same location where the company has done runway tests for several months. Stratolaunch's plane is designed to launch rockets from the air.
"The flight itself was smooth, which is exactly what you want the first flight to be. And for the most part, the airplane flew as predicted, which is again exactly what we want," pilot Evan Thomas, who was at the controls of the aircraft as it soared to altitudes exceeding 17,000 feet (nearly 5,200 meters), said in a news conference on the same day as the flight.
He said that he was used to how the plane handled during high-speed taxis on the ground, but what made it different was starting to take off — a moment that Thomas described as, "OK, it's time to go."
Stratolaunch's rocket-carrying plane flew for the first time on April 13, 2019.
(Image: © Stratolaunch)
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They’ll be in the flight deck of the starboard fuselage, maneuvering the plane from far to the right of its centerline, while the port fuselage cockpit is empty and unpressurized.
From Seattle Times, 5/31/2017: Paul Allen’s colossal Stratolaunch plane emerges from its lair
More from Wikipedia: Scaled Composites Stratolaunch
