The massive Stratolaunch airplane backed by billionaire Paul Allen's Vulcan Aerospace may take flight this year, according to report by tech news site GeekWire.

Speaking at an event at the University of Washington, Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft, tried to capture the aircraft's huge size.

"Is it ‘ginormous?' I don’t know, it’s pretty darn big," he said, according to Thursday's report.

"The tail is 50 feet high, just the tail. It’s probably the biggest carbon-composite vehicle ever constructed,"

Stratolaunch is meant to provide a cheaper, more flexible way to launch satellites into low-earth orbit. The aircraft will carry satellites high into the atmosphere before launching them.

Read more at Fortune.