Rutan Tapped To Design World’s Largest Aircraft
Burt Rutan has joined with Paul Allen in a plan to build the largest aircraft in the world
The Stratolaunch mother ship would be powered by six used Boeing 747 engines and have a mtow of some 1.2 million pounds, similar to an Airbus A380. The project could cost $200 million, according to a Wall Street Journal estimate.
The Stratolaunch mother ship would be powered by six used Boeing 747 engines and have a mtow of some 1.2 million pounds, similar to an Airbus A380. The project could cost $200 million, according to a Wall Street Journal estimate.

Burt Rutan, who retired in April from Scaled Composites, the company he founded in Mojave, Calif., has joined with Paul Allen in a plan to build the largest aircraft in the world. Allen, who co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates, funded the SpaceShipOne effort that successfully boosted the first privately funded manned rocket outside the Earth’s atmosphere.