First successful flight of unmanned hypersonic vehicle off the coast of California

angel. US aerospace company Stratolaunch on Saturday described the first powered test flight of a new unmanned spacecraft for hypersonic research as successful.

Hypersonic means flying at a speed of at least Mach 5, that is, five times the speed of sound.

CEO Zachary Craver said in a statement that the Talon-A-1 vehicle “reached high supersonic speeds near Mach 5 and collected a wealth of data with incredible value to our customers.”,

Craver said he could not disclose specific altitude and speed due to proprietary agreements with customers.

The company’s massive six-engine rock plane lifted the Talon up, attached it to the center of its massive wing, and launched it off the central coast of California.

The Talon, powered by a liquid-fuel rocket motor, ended its flight by landing in the ocean as planned. Although this Talon was expendable, a future version would be able to land on a runway for reuse.

Stratolaunch said the primary objectives of the flight include safely releasing the vehicle into the air, engine ignition, acceleration, sustained climb to altitude and a controlled landing in water.

The company described the result as a major milestone in the development of the United States’ first privately funded reusable hypersonic test capability.

Stratolaunch conducted two captive transport flights in December and February, in which the Talon was lifted off on live propellant but not freed from the mothership.

Stratolaunch is based at Mojave Air and Space Port in the Mojave Desert, north of Los Angeles.

The Rock Plane, named after a giant mythological bird, has a wingspan of 117 meters and twin fuselages that give the impression of two large jet planes flying together.

It was developed by Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen, who died in April 2019, just months before it flew for the first time.

Allen intended to use it as a carrier aircraft for space launches, carrying rockets loaded with satellites under the center of the wing and releasing them at high altitude.

That project was canceled, and new owners repurposed Stratolaunch for the launch of reusable hypersonic research vehicles.

Stratolaunch has announced flight contracts with the United States Air Force Research Laboratory and the Navy’s Multiservice Advanced Capability Test Bed Program as subcontractor for technology company Leidos of Reston, Virginia.