2024-03-16 07:00:08
The company Stratolaunch, created by the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, successfully completed a major test flight with its Talon-A1 (T-A1) hypersonic vehicle prototype on March 9.
Credit: Stratolaunch
Carried out from the Mojave Air and Space Port, California, this test marked a significant step in Stratolaunch’s goal of launching hypersonic vehicles from a giant carrier aircraft. The T-A1 was dropped from the Roc, the Stratolaunch carrier aircraft, at a altitude (Altitude is the vertical elevation of a place or object relative to a level…) above 6,000 meters, before its rocket engine (Rocket engines are jet engines used on…) Hadley, built by Ursa Major, only activates to propel the vehicle to hypersonic speeds.
According to Zachary Krevor, president of Stratolaunch, the flight managed to reach supersonic speeds close to Mach 5. This helped collect valuable data for Stratolaunch customers. THE engine (A motor (from the Latin mōtor: “one that moves”) is a device…) Hadley lived up to expectations, propelling the vehicle for approximately 200 seconds.
The Talon-A1 is dropped under the Stratolaunch air launch platform
Credit: Stratolaunch/Vimeo
The Roc, which is currently the largest aircraft in the world, took its maiden flight in April 2019. It weighs approximately 227 tonnes. Stratolaunch’s primary objectives for testing the T-A1 included safe release of the vehicle,ignition (To ignite, the air-fuel mixture, a gas contained in the cylinder must undergo a…) successful of the engine, theacceleration (Acceleration commonly refers to an increase in speed; in physics,…) at Mach 5, altitude maintenance and a landing (Landing designates, in the etymological sense, the fact of reaching dry land….) controlled in water.
This success paves the way for future tests with the TA-2, aiming for reusable flight. In addition, the company is developing a second (Second is the feminine form of the adjective second, which comes immediately after the first or which…) aerial launch platform, the Spirit of Mojave, an Boeing 747-400 (The Boeing 747-400 is, in 2009, the only Boeing 747 in production and was the largest aircraft…) adapted.
Stratolaunch’s Talon-A1 hypersonic vehicle completes its first powered test flight on March 9, 2024.
Credit: Stratolaunch
After the death of Paul Allen in 2018, Stratolaunch was acquired by Cerberus Capital Management, which moved the company’s operations from Seattle to the Mojave Air and Spaceport, now focusing on hypersonic vehicles.
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