World’s Largest Plane Makes First Flight Over California

Heavy black smoke rises from one of the six engines starting, before the first test flight of the world's largest airplane, built by the late Paul Allen's company Stratolaunch Systems, in Mojave, Calif. on April 13, 2019. REUTERS/Gene Blevins

LOS ANGELES—The world’s largest aircraft took off over the Mojave Desert in California on Saturday, the first flight for the carbon-composite plane built by Stratolaunch Systems Corp, started by late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, as the company enters the lucrative private space market.

The white airplane called Roc, which has a wingspan the length of an American football field and is powered by six engines on a twin fuselage, took to the air shortly before 7 a.m. Pacific time (1400 GMT) and stayed aloft for more than two hours before landing safely back at the Mojave Air and Space Port as a crowd of hundreds of people cheered.