Widest plane ever takes flight!

Hangar Flying
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Looks like a handful!

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So sad the project is basically dead.
They cancelled their rocket and so on. IMO this is going nowhere.

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It’s such a shame. Doesn’t stop the plane being incredible though :+1:

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I’d wager that it will be useful to someone. Anybody who’s ever played Kerbal Space Program can see the benefit of baypassing all those pesky molecules down low.

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Says its wingspan is longer but what’s is its weight in relation to the Spruce Goose?

Wheels

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It’s says 540,000 kg with fully fuelled launch vehicle at 230,000kg

So in reality it’s not actually that heavy empty

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That’s kind of the point. It is optimized to be pretty lightweight itself so it can carry a huge payload up there.

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While it’s cool to see it actually take flight, that plane is still a whole lotta Nope to me. Lol

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The giant airplane was made mostly of birch, not spruce, with a wingspan of 320 feet, a vertical fin of 85 feet, and a weight of 300,000 pounds. It was designed to carry 120,000 pounds of cargo, or 750 combat-ready troops, or two Sherman tanks. Its eight massive engines, with 17-foot propellers, generated over 3,000 horsepower each. It was to have a range of 3,000 miles at a speed of approximately 200 mph.

Source: The National Interest: Blog | The National Interest

The Spruce Goose weighed 300,000 lbs and was supposed to be able to carry 120,000 lbs of cargo with a total weight of 420,000 pounds. While this is supposed to carry 230,000 lbs which makes this one weigh 310,000 pounds in its full weight configuration.

Weighs a bit more and is able to carry almost double the cargo. I was being a bit snarky initially since I figured the wood had to weigh one heck of a lot more than this aircraft but it seems they outdid old Howard in both arenas.

Wheels

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You are not wrong: the old wood did weigh more than these fancy modern materials.

I mean, this new plane is built to take its cargo up to almost space, Spruce Goose was built to take it’s cargo from place A on ground to place B on ground. And even then, this Stratolaunch Jet does all that with Twice the amount of cargo.

Then when we finally compare the empty weights, the difference is only 3.3 %
I think that is mighty impressive

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