From the largest aircraft in the world will launch hypersonic devices during the flight

Aerospace company Stratolaunch is working on a flying aircraft carrier. Engineers want to develop

a system for launching small hypersonic aircraft directly from the wing of a massive Roc carrier aircraft. On October 28, the company conducted the first successful tests of the system.

Airplane Roc. Image: Stratolaunch

The Roc aircraft is the largest in the world.It consists of two combined hulls, and its total wingspan is 117 m. For the airliner itself, the last flight was already the eighth, but this was the first test of a joint flight with another device.


Stratolaunch test flight

Stratolaunch introduced back in 2020a Talon-A vehicle that can be attached to an aircraft's central wing pylon. The company's engineers want the massive airliner to take off and at an altitude of 10 km release the Talon-A, which can travel at speeds exceeding Mach 5 and land on Earth on its own.

During testing at the end of October, the airlinertook to the skies over the desert with a hypersonic device integrated into the center of the wing. The flight lasted about five hours and reached an altitude of 7 km. Representatives of the company note that tests will continue, including a flight with a landing over the Pacific Ocean by the end of the year, and already in 2023 the company plans to bring the device to the market.

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