The Fourth Flight Test of the Stratolaunch Carrier Aircraft has been Completed

Aerospace and Defense Review | Thursday, March 03, 2022

Stratolaunch's mission is to advance high-speed technology by designing, manufacturing, and innovatively operating world-class aerospace vehicles

Fremont, CA: Stratolaunch successfully completed its fourth flight test of the "Roc" carrier aircraft. With a 385-foot wingspan, Roc is the world's largest aircraft. The plane flew over the Mojave Desert for 1 hour and 43 minutes, reaching an altitude of 15,000 feet (4572 m). In addition, pilots prepared the carrier aircraft to launch its upcoming hypersonic testbed vehicle, Talon-A, as part of this latest flight.

Talon-A vehicles, which are launched from the Roc carrier aircraft, are rocket-powered, autonomous, reusable testbeds capable of carrying customizable payloads at speeds greater than Mach 5. This capability allows regular access to the hypersonic flight environment, which is critical for scientific research, technological development, and component demonstration.

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The following are the preliminary results from today's test objectives:

• Continuous assessment of the aircraft's performance and handling characteristics

• Entire landing gear operations were validated, including door functionality and alternate gear extension.

"Today's successful flight demonstrates and validates improvements to the carrier aircraft's systems and overall flight performance," said Stratolaunch President and Chief Operating Officer Dr. Zachary Krevor. "The full landing gear retraction and extension brings the carrier aircraft closer to operational status, a requirement for the aircraft to be ready for Talon-A separation and hypersonic flight tests later this year."

Aside from testing the carrier aircraft, the team is working on integrating two Talon-A test vehicles, TA-0 and TA-1. The team has also begun work on a third vehicle, the TA-2, the world's first fully reusable hypersonic test vehicle. The company expects to start hypersonic flight testing in 2022 and provide services to government and commercial customers in 2023.

Following today's test flight, a press conference will be held at 4:30 p.m. PST to discuss the results. Those in the media who want to attend the meeting can register here.

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