Stratolaunch Roc: The World's Largest Airplane That Almost Doesn't Look Real

In the legendary series of Arabian folklore, "The One Thousand and One Nights," the Roc is a gigantic mythological bird, said to be so enormous in size that it would carry off an elephant the same way a hawk carries off a squirrel. The Roc wasn't just a terrifying predator, however; according to the legends, the Roc also had a benevolent side, occasionally picking up the ships of lost sailors and ferrying them to safety.

Such a powerful, majestic creature would make a great namesake for a flying vehicle, but not just any vehicle could dare to wear such a mantle. It would need to be a vehicle that is absolutely gargantuan, not only in terms of literal size but in its purpose to humanity. Aerospace development company Stratolaunch decided to take up that challenge, and what they created could very well be the largest airplane in history, not to mention potentially one of the most important.

The Stratolaunch Roc is an absolute titan of aeronautic engineering, weighing in at 1.3 million pounds pre-takeoff and stretching out a mighty wingspan of 385 feet, longer than an entire football field. That incredible mass is carted into the air by a whopping six Boeing 747 jet engines. This plane is so big, it needs two entire fuselages to control, making it look like two jets that have been fused together at the wings.

So what does this enormous vehicle do? Much like its namesake company, the Roc's duty is to haul payloads into the stratosphere, suspended by its central anchor point, then deploy them in the air. The Roc can handle payloads weighing up to 500,000 pounds, with its cargo of choice being smaller hypersonic vehicles. By manually carrying a vehicle into the air, the Roc can make the process of launching much simpler than it would be launching from the ground. It can even deploy multiple payloads at once in a customized sequence.

The Roc has been in development for nearly a decade now, with Stratolaunch having conducted 11 test flights so far. Just last week, it successfully completed its first deployment trial. On May 13, the Roc performed a test carry and deployment of another of Stratolaunch's products, the hypersonic Talon. The Roc soared above the California coast to the Pacific Ocean, where the test Talon was dropped. The test went off without a hitch, giving the developers plenty of reason to be excited about future development.

"With this significant milestone complete, we move on to preparing for our first hypersonic flight in late fall this year," Stratolaunch CEO and president Zachary Krevor told reporters in a call on May 15. "It's a very exciting time for our company."

As Krevor said, one of Stratolaunch's long-term goals is to launch commercial hypersonic flights. With the continuing success of the Roc's development, their first hypersonic flight could very well be launched from the middle of those two fuselages.