Watch the world's largest plane hit 46MPH in latest taxi tests

While Stratolaunch didn't meet its original 2016 launch goal, the company has been putting its massive plane through one test after another over the past year. During its most recent tests, the 500,000-pound aircraft with a 385-foot wingspan has successfully reached a top taxi speed of 46MPH. It still hasn't taken to skies, but that's a huge improvement over the 28MPH it hit during the first taxi tests the space transportation company conducted in December.

According to Stratolaunch chief Paul Allen, his team has also verified that they can steer and stop the aircraft -- another success, since the tests' purpose is actually to certify that operators can control the largest plane in the world. The company hasn't revealed what other tests will need to be conducted before its new target launch date in 2020 and whether reaching 46MPH on the ground means we'll see it fly soon. But the hope is that once development is finished and it's been thoroughly tested, Stratolaunch will serve an affordable way to ferry small satellites to Low Earth Orbit.

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Billionaire Paul Allen's private spaceflight company Stratolaunch has just unveiled the world's biggest airplane: a massive carrier plane with a wingspan longer than an entire football field.

The colossal Stratolaunch carrier plane rolled out of its hangar at the Mojave Air and Space Port in Mojave, California, today (May 31) to undergo fueling tests. It's the first public look at the full craft —which is designed to launch rockets into orbit from the sky — since construction began

"We're excited to announce that Stratolaunch aircraft has reached a major milestone in its journey toward providing convenient, reliable, and routine access to low-Earth orbit," Stratolaunch Systems Corp. CEO Jean Floyd said in a statement. "This marks the completion of the initial aircraft-construction phase and the beginning of the aircraft ground- and flight-testing phase."

The Stratolaunch carrier plane is designed to launch rockets into orbit from an altitude of 30,000 feet (9,100 meters). Initially, the plane will carry a single Pegasus XL rocket built by Orbital ATK, but the craft will eventually be able to carry up to three of those boosters simultaneously, Floyd said.

The Stratolaunch plane is a twin-boom aircraft with a wingspan of 385 feet (117 m), a length of 238 feet (72 m) and a tail height of 50 feet (15 m). The massive plane weighs 550,000 lbs. (250,000 kilograms) by itself and a mind-boggling 1.3 million lbs. (590,000 kg) when fully loaded with a rocket payload. It takes six Pratt & Whitney PW4056 jet engines to power the monster jet.