Carried aloft by the massive six-engine carrier aircraft Roc,
Stratolaunch's Talon test craft reached speeds of Mach 5, five times
the speed of sound.
American aerospace company Stratolaunch hailed the first powered test
flight of a new unmanned craft for hypersonic research on Saturday a
success.
Hypersonic describes flights at speeds of at least Mach 5, or five
times the speed of sound.
Chief Executive Officer Zachary Krevor said in a statement that the
Talon-A-1 vehicle "reached high supersonic speeds approaching Mach 5
and collected a great amount of data at an incredible value to our
customers".
Krevor said he could not release the specific altitude and speed
because of proprietary agreements with customers.
The company's massive six-engine carrier aircraft Roc carried the Talon
aloft, attached to the centre of its gigantic wing, and released it off
the central coast of California in the US.
The Talon, powered by a liquid-fuel rocket engine, ended its flight by
descending into the ocean as planned. While this Talon was expendable,
a future version will be capable of landing on a runway for reuse.
Stratolaunch said the primary objectives for the flight included a safe
air-launch release of the vehicle, engine ignition, acceleration,
sustained climb in altitude, and a controlled water landing.
Milestone in hypersonic testing
The company called the result a major milestone in the development of
the United States' first privately funded, reusable hypersonic test
capability.
Stratolaunch conducted two captive-carry flights, in December and
February, in which the Talon was taken aloft with live propellant but
was not released from the mothership.
Stratolaunch is based at Mojave Air and Space Port in the Mojave Desert
north of Los Angeles.
The Roc aircraft, named after an enormous mythological bird, has a
wingspan of 117 m and twin fuselages that give the impression of two
big jets flying side by side.
It was developed by Microsoft co-founder Paul G Allen, who died just
months before it flew for the first time in April 2019.
Allen intended to use it as a carrier aircraft for space launches,
carrying satellite-laden rockets beneath the centre of the wing and
releasing them at high altitude.
That project was canceled, and new owners then repurposed Stratolaunch
for launches of reusable hypersonic research vehicles.
Stratolaunch has announced flight contracts with the US Air Force
Research Laboratory and the Navy's Multiservice Advanced Capability
Test Bed program as a subcontractor to technology company Leidos of
Reston, Virginia.
