2021-05-03 19:05:51 GMT2021-05-04 03:05:51(Beijing Time) Xinhua English by Peter Mertz LOS ANGELES, May 3 (Xinhua) -- In 1941, the U.S. government hired billionaire entrepreneur Howard Hughes to build a massive airplane to take some 700 American soldiers into combat. Hughes' legendary "Spruce Goose" had a wingspan of 320-feet (97.5 meters). Last week - 80 years later - an even bigger aircraft, the "Stratolaunch," took to the skies over southern California's Mojave Desert, in a second successful test flight that awed onlookers marveling at its wingspan of 385 feet (117.3 meters) and six Boeing engines that roared in synchronicity. The second successful test flight lasted 2.5 hours and the vehicle reached an altitude of 14,000-feet.