Called Stratolaunch, the plane has some impressive stats: a wingspan of 385 feet, or longer than a football field, a height of 50 feet. But it can carry 250,000 pounds of fuel, and its total weight can reach as high as 1.3 million pounds. It’s so big that it has 28 wheels and six 747 jet engines. But why is Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft and owner of the Seattle Seahawks, building such a massive plane? He, and others, such as Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit, are betting that they can reduce the cost of launching small satellites to space.

Source: National Post June 01, 2017 15:22 UTC