Paul Allen just rolled out the world’s largest airplane

Real World Aviation
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Antonov: Triggered

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Kind of odd it has 2 cockpits.

Maybe one is a false cockpit.

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Is that two cockpits I see? Uhhhhhh… How will communication work out?

And how the heck will they know if they’re centered?

Will there be two crews?

Questions upon questions for this one…

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Google is your friend. Stratolaunch website said that right fuselage houses flight crew while left fuselage houses flight data system.

I would put camera at center of wing above the rocket to see the centerline, I hope they have brain to do so.

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I call flying this first ;)

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So the right cockpit windows are just painted on or something?

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I said right fuselage houses flight crew, I think they do need windows to see what’s going on outside. I’m pretty sure left also have windows for flight data crew to monitor data on rocket.

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RIP ANTONOV 225.
Russia is definitely coming for us now #madeintheUSA

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Dude make a #features request for it.

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It hasnt even flown yet…

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so… Russia is still coming for us

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It’s never too early, you just have to believe!

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Why are you guys saying RIP Antonov? Correct me if I’m wrong but this hasn’t even been off the ground I’m not saying RIP Antonov until I see it successfully lift off the ground on its own. #AntonovLover42

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A new plane to slap a mustache on. Papa Stratolauncher may not be the largest mass and load wise.

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This is the biggest aircraft, but I wouldn’t consider it an airplane. It’s to carry rockets to quite high altitudes first… like Virginia Galactic apparently. Don’t know. Somebody correct me.

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Sort of wrong, but yeah it’s similar to SpaceShipOne and SpaceShipTwo. These planes are owned by The SpaceShip Company which is owned by Virgin Galactic.

I’m concerned about stress stratolaunch will experience when it drops rocket. The rocket will be heavy so sudden change in weight might break wing, center of wing has highest stress on this plane. I hope they calculated all of stresses correctly.

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Fun fact: Due to the legalities of spacecraft vs aircraft, rocket-launching planes like these (at least the Virgin Galactic ones) are legally spaceships when they take off but are classified as aircraft when landing after having launched their payloads, and have to obey different rules as a result.

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Oh so crews will be held in both cockpits?

BTW I got the side mixed up, sorry.

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And 35,000 ft. Is quite high?

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