[BenLurkin]

The Stratolaunch aircraft, a six-engine jet with the world’s longest wingspan takes off from Mojave Air and Space Port during craft’s second flight, Thursday, April 29, 2021in Mojave, Calif. The gigantic aircraft has flew for the second time in two years.
(AP Photo/Matt Hartman)

[Army Air Corps]

Ping.

[Rocky]

has flew?

[who_would_fardels_bear]

How similar is that to Virgin Galactic’s plane?

[ProtectOurFreedom]

It must be a challenge keeping both sets of wheels on one runway. The distance between the two fuselages looks like the width of a runway.

An aside: My son and I toured the Mojave Spaceport some years ago. There isn't a lot to see there, but we stopped into the break room and my son met an F18 Growler pilot and his backseat man. We got to walk all around the aircraft and sit in both seats. That was really cool!

[SuperLuminal]

Hmmm...
That must mean they are flying that thing over the Mars rover and helicopter landing site, which is only about 100-miles due east of the spaceport...

[seabeeson]

Can I ask why this is even worth the time?

[Paal Gulli]

The Stratolaunch is Burt Rutan's magnum opus.

The bending moment in the middle of the Stratolaunch's central wing is 800 million inch-pounds, same as an African bull elephant standing on the end of a diving board a mile long.

The wing spars weigh 60,000 lbs each, and there are four of them. The six engines weigh about 9500 lbs each. Which means absent those two components, the whole of the largest wingspan aircraft ever built, even with twin fuselages, weighs barely more than 200,000 lbs.

That is gossamer light.