In comparison, the wingspan of the modified Boeing 747 that Virgin Orbit is using comes to 211 feet. Stratolaunch’s twin-fuselage, six-engine Roc airplane is in a class by itself, thanks to its world-record wingspan of 385 feet. Such systems hold the promise of greater versatility and quicker response time for launching payloads, due to the fact that the carrier planes can take off from a wide variety of runways, fly around inclement weather and theoretically launch their payloads in any desired orbital inclination. Other companies, principally including Virgin Orbit, are also working on next-generation air launch technology. The airframe structure for a Talon-A prototype designed for flight separation testing is visible in the background. Stratolaunch’s Talon-A hypersonic vehicle is slated to use Ursa Major Technologies’ Hadley rocket engine, shown in the foreground. Stratolaunch hasn’t ruled out eventually pursuing other applications for its launch system, including sending satellite payloads and crewed space planes into orbit. “What we’re doing is providing a path or them to test a lot of their technologies in a simpler way, in a repeatable way, in a useful way so that they can get to their all-up rounds much quicker,” Millman said. Millman said Stratolaunch’s Talon testbed will be able to carry payloads, test materials and fly a variety of profiles that can help the Pentagon determine characteristics of hypersonic flight before it conducts costly full-blown flights of its own hypersonic vehicles. “That’s exactly one of the areas that we’re looking at: how can we help the Department of Defense in mitigating risks for all their extensive flight testing,” Millman told GeekWire. Stratolaunch expects its technology to figure in the Pentagon’s plans. Russia and China are said to be working on hypersonic weapons systems, and the U.S. Hypersonic flight at five times the speed of sound is a big deal for military applications. Krevor said the crew included chief pilot Evan Thomas, pilot Mark Giddings and flight engineer Jake Riley. Zachary Krevor, Stratolaunch’s chief operating officer, said today’s flight accomplished all of its test objectives by checking the performance of improved instrumentation, a more robust flight control system and an environmental control system that allowed the pilots to work in a pressurized cockpit. During that earlier flight, the airplane reached a maximum speed of 189 mph and maximum altitude of 17,000 feet. Roc rose as high as 14,000 feet and traveled at a top speed of 199 mph during a flight that lasted three hours and 14 minutes - which is close to an hour longer than the first flight on April 13, 2019. PT marked the first time the plane, nicknamed Roc after the giant bird of Arabian and Persian mythology, got off the ground since Stratolaunch’s acquisition by Cerberus Capital Management in October 2019. Today’s takeoff from California’s Mojave Air and Space Port at 7:28 a.m. “We are airborne!” Stratolaunch reported in a tweet. Stratolaunch, the aerospace company founded by the late Seattle billionaire Paul Allen, put the world’s biggest airplane through its second flight test today, two years after the first flight. ![]() Stratolaunch’s Roc carrier plane flies above California’s Mojave Desert.
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