Stratolaunch's Monster *MAY* Launch Black Ice: a reusable spaceplane the size of the shuttle

A massive airplane being built by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen moved a step closer to flight last week, when it crept out of its hangar in Mojave, Calif., and practiced rolling down the runway, hitting a top speed of 46 mph.

Known as Stratolaunch, the plane has a wingspan even greater than that of business mogul Howard Hughes’s famed Spruce Goose and is designed to carry as many as three rockets, tethered to its belly, to about 35,000 feet. Once aloft, the rockets would drop, then fire their engines and deliver satellites to orbit.

But Allen has even bigger ambitions for Stratolaunch and is considering pairing it with a new space shuttle that’s known inside the company as Black Ice.

In exclusive interviews last summer, Allen and Jean Floyd, Stratolaunch System's chief executive, laid out the company’s plans for the giant plane, providing an answer to why anyone would want to build an aircraft that has 28 wheels, six 747 jet engines and a wingspan longer than a football field.

“I would love to see us have a full reusable system and have weekly, if not more often, airport-style, repeatable operations going,” Allen said in an interview in his Seattle office.

The Black Ice space plane — should it be built — would be about as big as the former space shuttle developed by NASA and capable of staying up for at least three days. It could be launched from virtually anywhere in the world, as long as the runway could accommodate Stratolaunch’s size. And it would be capable of flying to the International Space Station, taking satellites and experiments to orbit, and maybe one day even people — though there are no plans for that in the near-term.

Then it would land back on the runway, ready to fly again.

www.washingtonpost.com... called-black-ice/

alt link: www.parabolicarc.com...

This explains some of what Allen et al are up to. Hes basically building a scaled up version of Spaceship-1.

In a way, I really wish Allen had pulled Mitch Burnside Clapp into the room for that conversation.

Which does bring up an interesting idea: just how much do we think the Allen's Monster has for payload capacity?

The STS was 120 tons. Could the Monster have more?

Your link is broken.

Please fix.

a reply to: grey580

still broken for whatever reason. added an alt link through parabolic arc.

very similar to a lot of 60's shuttle concepts, another plane takes the shuttle to middle space

originally posted by: grey580
Your link is broken.

Please fix.

It's the WP, tricky...ATS adds text to their link for some reason. Just copy and paste from the OP's reply box.


To OP. not sure I like the look of the set-up in that prototype, with those engines on the outer wings. You would think there would be enormous stress on the inner joining wing....I must be wrong I suppose.

Anyway, enjoy the rollout...it's big, and the band all look like they need wee wees!



This nice Englishman will tell you all about it.

a reply to: anzha

You need to use the link feature of ats. Copy and pasting a link in the post might break.

sample link

It's the icon next to the cloud.


I did a google search and found the url. Why is Paul Allen building the world’s largest airplane? Perhaps to launch a space shuttle called Black Ice.

The Washington Post

Example (remove space after bracket) I remember looking up how to in one of the freshman / introduction forums and wrote down to refer back to.

[ url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2018/03/06/why-is-paul-allen-building-the-worlds-largest-airplane-perhaps-to-launch-a-space-shut tle-called-black-ice/]The Washington Post[/url]

[ url=http://www.bizpacreview.com/2017/01/15/black-pastor-marched-john-lewis-says-time-hes-wrong-side-history-436087]Black pastor who marched with John Lewis says this time he’s on the wrong side of history[/url]

a reply to: smurfy

I'd have thought they would have joined up the rear tail fins to add a bit more strength. Perhaps even add panelling at the top between the two bodies to provide some protection from the elements. Why not go the whole way and just create an enclosed bay like a bomber to protect the cargo from any runway debris?

a reply to: Bramble Iceshimmer

I got a percent twenty in the link. Delete it and the link will work.

Has anyone determined which hangar is Allen's?

a reply to: gariac

The really big one with "Stratolaunch" painted on the front.

originally posted by: stormcell
a reply to: smurfy

I'd have thought they would have joined up the rear tail fins to add a bit more strength. Perhaps even add panelling at the top between the two bodies to provide some protection from the elements. Why not go the whole way and just create an enclosed bay like a bomber to protect the cargo from any runway debris?

There's something of an explanation in the second video, not quite what you are saying, but you'll get the drift.

I was thinking, why not just put some bomb bay doors on the bottom of an Antonov aircraft or Hercules transport plane and let a rocket drop out from underneath?

a reply to: stormcell

Complexity among other things. External carriage is the best way to do it with rockets.

originally posted by: stormcell
I was thinking, why not just put some bomb bay doors on the bottom of an Antonov aircraft or Hercules transport plane and let a rocket drop out from underneath?

Floors of cargo aircraft are pretty strongly reinforced and generally feature one or more keel beams. That makes simply cutting a giant "bomb bay" difficult. Easier to drop stuff out the back and launch vertically (but you lose most of the advantages that way).
One of the reasons Orbital choose the old L-1011 as a carrier aircraft was they could cut in between the keel beams to let just the dorsal fin enter the fuselage on the centerline without major structural mods.

a reply to: anzha

Which does bring up an interesting idea: just how much do we think the Allen's Monster has for payload capacity? 

The STS was 120 tons. Could the Monster have more?

Stratolaunch has a payload capability of 500,000 lbs. But that is carrying capacity, not to orbit. The payload to orbit is going to depend on the nature of the rocket you use. I will say I'm not optimistic you can design a 500,000 lb rocket that carries enough to orbit at cost that is competitive. Orbital and SpaceX already did the math and decided to pass. Not good news for them.