World's largest plane soars to its highest altitude yet

https://newatlas.com ^ | 16 June, 2022 | By Nick Lavars

[Magnum44]

That is one ugly airplane.

[jeffc]

Weird, looks like two planes locked wings...

[spel_grammer_an_punct_polise]

It looks to me that those flaps are 100%. I’ve never seen an aircraft with 100% flaps. Maybe they wanted to go slow for the photo?

[steve86]

The flaps are split flaps that also act as speed brakes.

[I-ambush]

What if there is a disagreement between the two cockpits about which way to go? It’s like the Siamese twins of aviation.

[Magnum44]

looks like two planes locked wings...

Inspired by Chuck Norris

[PghBaldy]

Made me think of Chang and Eng Bunker.

[telescope115]

Holy crap that thing is big.

[Larry Lucido]

[cuban leaf]

It appears one of its primary functions is to launch spacecraft from a very high altitude rather than ground launch. That could be a very big deal.

[Celtic Conservative]

Looks like a lawn dart. Hope it doesn’t fly like one.

CC

[cuban leaf]

Reminds me of a Star Trek shuttle craft.

[telescope115]

Rule #1:
No husband-wife pilot teams.

[Celtic Conservative]

One cockpit is empty.

CC

[shotgun]

I bet that thing kicks up a lot of dirt and debris onto the runway with those engines hanging that far out and take a few hours to sweep it clean.

[DPMD]

Altitude gains will increase until it gets close enough to the sun to shut down the engines and break out the solar panels. Icarus smiles.

[Flick Lives]

12,000 feet required. 385’ wingspan

That's a huge wingspan, but not as gigantic as the concept design for a flying atomic powered aircraft carrier, the Lockheed CL-1201. Design wingspan 1,120 ft. Of course, thankfully this craft never made it out of the concept phase. One can imagine about a dozen problems right off the bat including recovering fighter jets while aloft, or the fact this would present a giant target to the enemy.

[17th Miss Regt]

Red, that was sarcasm. Sigh...

[DesertRhino]

Yes, much much easier to launch things into orbit if you don’t have to burden the rocket with fuels to cut through the thicker atmosphere at lower levels. Way cheaper to get things into orbit.

[PAR35]

Imagine a catapult launch in that thing!

Why do you think the Navy builds carriers with two catapults on the bow? One for each fuselage. (Of course, since the catapults aren't parallel, an adapter would be needed.)