Largest US Aircraft in History: Civil Usage or Military Purposes?

On August, 20 US-based company Stratolaunch published a statement scheduling the first test flight in fall 2018 of the largest plane in terms of wingspan in the history of civil aviation. However, the plane's usage might not be strictly civilian, the journal Popular Mechanics says.

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The largest aircraft in the world by wingspan, 385 feet (117 meters) is the child of an agreement between two notorious figures: Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen and aerospace icon Burt Rutan. The team working on the biggest plane in history consists of only 47 workers – yet under Rutan's leadership, they are aiming to prepare Stratolaunch for its first official flight by 2020.

The original idea behind Stratolaunch was to launch rockets and satellites at much cheaper cost. The high price tag of launches is, actually, still a problem affecting the entire space industry. While SpaceX tries to reduce costs with reusable rockets, satellite manufacturers are trying to reduce the weight and cost of their products, Stratolaunch claims that their unique approach could help avoid "long wait times, high price tags and costly delays."

The concept of launching satellite-carrying rockets to avoid such conditions as weather and traffic, which may delay a flight, isn’t exactly new, yet it is costly. For example, the price to launch a half-a-ton satellite using a Pegasus rocket from a Lockheed plane has a price tag of around $40 million. With competitors like SpaceX and Blue Origin already cutting this number by more than half, Stratolaunch might find it difficult to find clients. Popular Mechanics speculated that the largest plane in the world might actually be a hidden military project. It would remain a mere speculation if not for the "Glomar Explorer" precedent.

The journal recalled the Department of Defense project for a large deep sea drilling ship presumably designed to harvest manganese ore from the ocean floor. In fact, that was a project hidden in plain sight because of its gigantic size. The actual aim of the craft was to salvage a sunken Soviet nuclear submarine in the Pacific Ocean. The details of the project were revealed only in 2012, after several requests to the DoD.

There are several reasons why Stratolaunch could appear to be a similar cover story, Popular Mechanics suggested. Both US Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of the Air Force Heather Wilson visited the company’s facilities during the construction process. The US Air Force already has an agreement with major American airlines that during a military crisis civilian planes would be drafted into military service, so it is reasonable to assume that the same proposition will be made for Stratolaunch.

The Stratolaunch's capabilities would allow it to carry anti-satellite weapons and to launch them without notice regardless of weather conditions. Moreover, as the journal Quartz pointed out, the US military said it would award $10 million to any company that manages to launch satellites on short notice, which is the primary aim of Stratolaunch. However, the air leviathan wouldn’t be able to compete in this offer because it expires in 2019 – a year before Stratolaunch's first official scheduled flight.

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Another possible way that Stratolaunch might be used for military purposes is through the "Dual-Use" technologies onboard. According to the 2006 Missile Technology Control Regime Agreement, US aircraft could possibly feature “Dual-Use” navigational systems that could be enabled for military purposes such as in the case of a terrorist attack.