Roc, from Stratolaunch, also known as the Scaled Composites Model 351, is the aircraft with the largest wingspan ever flown.
Tip to tip, the wingspan measures 385 feet (117.35 meters).
The aircraft has two fuselages, joined by a single wing across the middle.
Six Pratt & Whitney PW4056 engines, taken from two retired Boeing 747s, power it.
Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen founded Stratolaunch in 2011 to build a carrier that lifts rockets bound for orbit above the thick lower atmosphere.
A launch from up there needs less fuel. The rocket doesn't have to push through the densest layer of air from the ground.
The nickname comes from a mythical bird said to lift a full-grown elephant.
Paul Allen died six months before the first flight.
The giant nearly stayed a museum piece.
On April 13, 2019, it took off from Mojave, California.
It can carry up to 550,000 pounds (249,500 kilograms).
How wide is that span on the ground?
A little longer than an American football field. Here the measure is wing, not grass.
The rocket does not wait on the runway.
It waits under a wing, already high in the air.
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