Paul Allen is Building a Giant Rocket-Toting Plane!

Paul Allen's huge six Boing 747 jet engine touting bemouth has been tagged The Stratolaunch carrier aircraft. The Stratolaunch is set to become the largest airplane ever built.

Stratolaunch Systems is building an enormous airplane that will carry huge rockets to 30,000 feet and release them for trips into low-Earth orbit.

The carrier plane is being built for Stratolaunch in California's Mojave Desert by founder Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites. With a wingspan of 385 feet, the twin-fuselage carrier aircraft will be the largest ever made. As the graphic illustrates, the plane's wings stretch further than those of a 747-8 Intercontinental, Airbus A-380-800, Antonov An-225, or even Howard Hughes's infamous "Spruce Goose," which only flew once.

Coming Soon: Windowless Cockpits on Airliners

Yep you read that correctly!  Airbus has a patent now for a windowless cockpit.  The argument for something that sounds completely insane is the pilot in such an aircraft will have increased situational awareness as well as a much wider portion of the sky.  The pilot can pan and zoom as needed, and even provide dynamic 3D viewing as well as range-finding. 

Another necessity is having pilots in the front of the plane so that they can look out, but with a cockpit without windows, the pilots control center can be installed anywhere in the plane.  Without the need for the windows, the planes can be made much more efficient and structurally sound. 

Being able to install the cockpit anywhere in  the plane leads to the next logical step will be to remove a pilots cockpit all together making the jet a drone controlled remotely.

Read the complete article here