- "Proposed vehicles include the Talon+, which follows a similar design to the Talon-A, but which is larger, with upturned wingtips," as The War Zone has highlighted.
- "There's also an even bigger and more spaceplane-like design, previously known as Black Ice, which could be configured to carry cargo, and possibly even passengers."
Stratolaunch’s Hypersonic Talon-A Makes First Powered Flight
Launched from the company’s giant Roc jet, Stratolaunch’s Talon-A ignited its engine and rocketed off California’s Coast for 200 seconds.
- The vehicle "reached high supersonic speeds approaching Mach 5," Dr. Zachary Krevor, president and CEO of Stratolaunch, said.
- Moreover, immediate post-flight data indicates that it coasted for up to five minutes post-burnout before diving into the waters off the central Californian coast.
- This high-stakes test flight of TA-1 was shadowed by an Aero L-39 Albatross and Citation II, which provided chase support.
Moreover, according to Aviation Week, TA-1 was carrying multiple test payloads during its first powered flight, the exact nature of which remains unclear. We have reached out to Stratolaunch for more information.
- "We got the right energy conditions and were able to execute secondary and tertiary test targets.
- We are really pleased with the ignition of the Ursa Major rocket engine, the climb to altitude we planned and the conditions which we gave to our customers."
- The company is also considering introducing a fueling top-off capability to Roc in order to enhance TA-1's performance.
- It isn't clear exactly what this would entail.
- We have reached out to Stratolaunch for more details.
For Stratolaunch, the flight has significance for other hypersonic vehicles it has under construction. "Our goal with this flight was to continue our risk reduction approach for TA-2's first reusable flight... We are excited to review the data from today's test and use it as we plan our next steps toward TA-2's first flight later this year," Krevor said.
While TA-1 is still considered to be expendable, the aforementioned TA-2, and TA-3, vehicles will be fully reusable. TA-2 and TA-3 will also feature tricycle landing gear; allowing them to recover on Vandenberg's runways after hypersonic flights.
- With that said, Talon-A certainly presents attractive qualities; considering that it has the potential to be used for aerodynamic tests and material sciences, alongside the development of integrated sensors and other payloads onto future hypersonic vehicles.
- In November last year, Stratolaunch received a flight test contract award from Leidos, the prime contractor for the U.S. Navy's Multiservice Advanced Capability Test Bed (MACH-TB) program.
- A total of five Talon-A hypersonic flights with optional payloads are to be conducted.
- The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) has also continued its interest and support in Talon-A as of late, with the award of a contract in October 2023 to support the first flight test of TA-3.
- Stratolaunch announced its first contract with AFRL in late 2022 in support of TA-1's first flight.
At least some of the MACH-TB Talon-A test flights, slated to take place this year, will see the vehicles launched from the former Virgin Orbit Boeing 747-400, which Stratolaunch acquired last year, instead of Roc.
- "Proposed vehicles include the Talon+, which follows a similar design to the Talon-A, but which is larger, with upturned wingtips," as The War Zone has highlighted.
- "There's also an even bigger and more spaceplane-like design, previously known as Black Ice, which could be configured to carry cargo, and possibly even passengers."
Contact the author: oliver@thewarzone.com
Talon-0 Hypersonic Plane for Mach 6 Flights: Stratolaunch's Massive Roc carrier plane completes hypersonic vehicle separation test
Related: Stratolaunch test photos: The world's largest plane in action
StratoLaunch's huge Roc plane drops hypersonic test vehicle for 1st time (video)
Roc lifted off from the Mojave Air and Space Port in Southern California on Saturday a little after 9 a.m. local time, Stratolaunch representatives said, kicking off the plane's 11th test flight.
Roc, which has a wingspan longer than a football field, carried the company's Talon-0 separation test vehicle between its twin fuselages. The giant plane headed west, eventually dropping Talon-0 when it was off California's central coast.
Talon-0 isn't equipped with an engine, so it didn't make a powered flight on Saturday. But the vehicle did perform a variety of gliding maneuvers and continued sending telemetry back to the mission team until it hit the water, in a destructive impact that was all part of Saturday's flight plan.
"We got to watch it set up for a mock landing and eventually touch down on the water," Scott Schultz, Stratolaunch's senior director of engineering, said on today's call, referring to Talon-0.
"So, all primary objectives, secondary objectives, tertiary objectives — everything was accomplished," he said. "It was really, really a fantastic day."
Roc, meanwhile, returned for a touchdown at Mojave four hours and eight minutes after liftoff, bringing an end to Saturday's test flight.
Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen established Stratolaunch in 2011, with the initial goal of air-launching rockets carried high into the atmosphere, and then released, by Roc. Virgin Orbit and Virgin Galactic also employ an air-launch strategy, for satellite and space-tourism missions, respectively (though Virgin Orbit's future is murky; it recently declared bankruptcy).
The vision changed in 2019, a year after Allen's death: Stratolaunch turned Roc into a platform for hypersonic research and development, which it will conduct with the giant plane and the Talon series of robotic hypersonic vehicles. ("Hypersonic" refers to speeds of at least Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound.)
Thanks to Saturday's success, the company's first hypersonic flight may now be just a few months away.
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