Tag: Hypersonic flight

Categories
GeekWire

Stratolaunch’s prototype rocket plane goes supersonic

Stratolaunch carrier airplane deploys TA-1 test vehicle for air launch
Stratolaunch’s carrier airplane releases the TA-1 test vehicle for launch. (Stratolaunch via Vimeo)

Chalk up another milestone for Stratolaunch, the air-launch venture created by the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen: The company’s mammoth airplane deployed a winged test vehicle for its first rocket-powered flight.

Stratolaunch’s single-use TA-1 test vehicle blazed a trail for future reusable hypersonic test vehicles that are expected to help the U.S. military catch up on one of the frontiers of aerial combat. TA-1 went supersonic, according to Zachary Krevor, Stratolaunch’s president and CEO — but based on his comments, it may not have quite hit the hypersonic standard of five times the speed of sound.

“While I can’t share the specific altitude and speed TA-1 reached due to proprietary agreements with our customers, we are pleased to share that in addition to meeting all primary and customer objectives of the flight, we reached high supersonic speeds approaching Mach 5 and collected a great amount of data at an incredible value to our customers,” Krevor said today in a news release.

Get the full story on GeekWire
Categories
GeekWire

New Frontier bridges past and future of hypersonic flight

David Gregory and Bill Bruner at New Frontier Aerospace HQ
New Frontier Aerospace’s chief operating officer, David Gregory (at left), lays his hand on the company’s Mjölnir rocket engine while CEO Bill Bruner holds a 3D-printed model of the company’s hypersonic rocket ship. (GeekWire Photo / Alan Boyle)

TUKWILA, Wash. — Thirty years after the first flight of a pioneering reusable rocket ship known as the Delta Clipper Experimental, or DC-X, a commercial venture is aiming to bring its legacy to life in the Seattle area. Even its name — New Frontier Aerospace — is a callback to the earlier days of America’s space effort, going back to John F. Kennedy references to outer space as part of his “New Frontier.”

“We’re sort of like the grandson of DC-X,” New Frontier’s co-founder and CEO, Bill “Burners” Bruner, said at the startup’s headquarters in Tukwila.

But he doesn’t see New Frontier as a space launch venture in the strictest sense of the word. “We’re not doing the squat, or cylindrical or conical shapes that we were talking about in those days,” he told me. “We’re proposing to combine the hypersonic research of the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s, and some of those geometries, with reusable rockets to attack the trillion-dollar air transportation market instead of the $11 billion space launch market.”

Get the full story on GeekWire
Categories
GeekWire

Stratolaunch hits milestone in its hypersonic quest

Stratolaunch's Roc airplane releases TA-0 test vehicle in mid-flight
Stratolaunch releases the TA-0 separation test vehicle from its Roc airplane. (Stratolaunch Photo / Ethan Wagner)

California-based Stratolaunch, the venture created by the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, released a separation test vehicle for the first time this weekend during an experimental flight of the world’s largest airplane.

The event marked a significant milestone in Stratolaunch’s quest to create an air-launch system for rocket-powered hypersonic vehicles.

The May 13 outing was the 11th flight test for Stratolaunch’s flying launch pad — a twin-fuselage, six-engine airplane with a record-setting 385-foot wingspan. The plane is nicknamed Roc in honor of a giant bird in Middle East mythology.

Roc carried the Talon-A separation test vehicle, known as TA-0, during three previous test flights. But this was the first time TA-0 was released from Roc’s center-wing pylon to fly free. The release took place during a four-hour, eight-minute flight that involved operations in Vandenberg Space Force Base’s Western Range, off California’s central coast.

Get the full story on GeekWire
Categories
GeekWire

Stratolaunch’s mammoth plane begins its big year

Stratolaunch plane in flight
Stratolaunch’s Roc launch platform carries the Talon-A separation test vehicle during a flight test. (Gauntlet Aerospace / Christian Turner)

Stratolaunch, the air-launch company founded by the late Seattle software billionaire Paul Allen, today conducted its second captive-carry test flight with the world’s largest airplane and a piggyback payload. The six-hour outing from California’s Mojave Air and Space Port marked further progress toward the first launch of the Talon-A hypersonic flight vehicle.

Today’s flight gave Stratolaunch’s team a chance to rehearse procedures for releasing a separation test vehicle from the twin-fuselage Roc aircraft in midflight — and eventually launching rocket-powered Talon-A vehicles for government and commercial applications. “We are excited for what’s ahead this year as we bring out hypersonic flight test service online for our customers and the nation,” Stratolaunch CEO Zachary Krevor said in a news release.

Get the news brief on GeekWire
Categories
GeekWire

Air Force lab agrees to support hypersonic test flight

Roc airplane with separation test vehicle
Stratolaunch's Roc aircraft carries a Talon-A separation test vehicle during a flight test in October. (Stratolaunch Photo)

Stratolaunch, the company created by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen more than a decade ago, says it’s won a contract from the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory to support next year’s flight test of Stratolaunch’s first Talon-A hypersonic vehicle.

The rocket-powered Talon-A is designed to be deployed from Stratolaunch’s twin-fuselage Roc aircraft, which is the world’s largest airplane. Last month, Stratolaunch flew a stand-in for the hypersonic test vehicle during Roc’s eighth flight test, and it’s planning to execute Roc’s first air launch with TA-1 in the first quarter of 2023.

Get the news brief on GeekWire
Categories
GeekWire

Stratolaunch adds a payload to its mammoth airplane

Stratolaunch plane in flight
The triangular Talon-A separation test vehicle can be seen attached to a pylon on Stratolaunch’s Roc aircraft. (Stratolaunch Photo)

Stratolaunch — the air-launch company founded by the late Seattle software billionaire Paul Allen — put a test version of its hypersonic vehicle through its first in-the-air trial today.

The Talon-A separation test vehicle, known as TA-0, stayed firmly attached to its Roc carrier airplane throughout today’s five-hour outing, which began and ended at California’s Mojave Air and Space Port. This was Roc’s eighth flight test, but the first to have a payload attached to a wing pylon centered between its twin fuselages. Roc rates as the world’s largest airplane, with a wingspan of 385 feet.

This time, Stratolaunch focused on measuring the aerodynamic loads on the Talon-A test vehicle while mated to Roc, in preparation for future tests that would involve releasing a functional, rocket-equipped Talon-A for hypersonic flight.

Roc reached a maximum altitude of 23,000 feet and a speed of 185 knots (213 mph) during the flight test, Stratolaunch CEO Zachary Krevor said.

Get the full story on GeekWire
Categories
GeekWire

Stratolaunch hits new heights with world’s biggest plane

Stratolaunch Roc plane in flight
Stratolaunch’s Roc airplane flies over California’s Mojave Desert. (Stratolaunch via Twitter)

Stratolaunch says its mammoth carrier airplane rose to its highest altitude yet during its seventh flight test over California’s Mojave Desert.

The aerospace venture, which was established by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen more than a decade ago but is now owned by a private equity firm, reported a peak altitude of 27,000 feet during today’s test.

If all goes according to plan, the twin-fuselage Roc airplane could begin flying Stratolaunch’s Talon-A hypersonic test vehicles for captive-carry and separation testing as early as this year.

One of the prime objectives for today’s three-hour flight at the Mojave Air and Space Port was to gather data on the aerodynamic characteristics of the plane, including a pylon structure from which the rocket-powered Talon-A vehicles will be released and launched.

Roc’s seventh flight came a week after the sixth flight test, which couldn’t achieve all of its objectives.

Get the full story on GeekWire
Categories
GeekWire

World’s widest airplane lands early after flight test

Stratolaunch plane on runway
Stratolaunch’s twin-fuselage Roc airplane gets ready for its sixth flight test. (Stratolaunch Photo)

Stratolaunch says the sixth flight test of its super-sized Roc carrier airplane ended earlier than planned when the team ran into an unexpected issue.

“While completing Roc testing operations, we encountered a test result that made it clear we would not achieve all objectives for this flight,” the California-based company, which was created by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen more than a decade ago, said in Twitter update. “We made the decision to land, review the data, and prepare for our next flight.”

Stratolaunch’s 385-foot-wide, twin-fuselage airplane is the world’s largest aircraft by wingspan. Stratolaunch has been testing Roc at Mojave Air and Space Port in preparation for using the plane as a flying launch pad for rocket-powered hypersonic test vehicles.

The company, which was acquired from Allen’s estate by a private equity firm in 2019, didn’t specify the nature of the test results that led to the decision to land. For what it’s worth, one of the flight’s key objectives was to expand the testing envelope for the center-wing pylon that will carry and release the hypersonic vehicles.

Get the full story on GeekWire
Categories
GeekWire

Stratolaunch marks May the 4th with fifth flight test

Stratolaunch landing
Stratolaunch’s Roc airplane comes in for a Mojave landing. (Stratolaunch / NASASpaceflight.com)

Stratolaunch took the “fifth” on May the 4th, otherwise known as Star Wars Day. Today brought the fifth flight test for Stratolaunch’s 385-foot-wide carrier aircraft, known as Roc (in a nod to the giant bird of Middle Eastern mythology).

Roc ranks as the world’s largest airplane by wingspan, and is designed to carry and release the company’s rocket-powered Talon-A hypersonic vehicles for military and commercial applications.

Seattle billionaire Paul Allen, the late co-founder of Microsoft, founded the venture in 2011 — but after Allen’s death in 2018, ownership was transferred to a private equity firm. Like Virgin Galactic and Virgin Orbit, Stratolaunch takes advantage of air-launch technology pioneered during the award-winning SpaceShipOne campaign that Allen bankrolled nearly two decades ago.

Roc took off from California’s Mojave Air and Space Port at 7:39 a.m. PT today for a flight that lasted four hours and 58 minutes and reached a maximum altitude of 22,500 feet. Stratolaunch took note of the Star Wars Day connection in a post-landing tweet. “The force is strong in this plane,” the company said.

The test’s prime objective was to check the aerodynamic performance of a new pylon added to Roc’s center wing section.

Get the full story on GeekWire
Categories
GeekWire

Stratolaunch flexes mammoth plane’s landing gear

Stratolaunch Roc airplane in flight
Stratolaunch’s Roc airplane files over the Mojave Desert. (NASASpaceflight.com / Stratolaunch via YouTube)

Stratolaunch, the air-launch venture created by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen a decade ago, successfully conducted a full test of the landing gear on its mammoth Roc carrier aircraft today.

Today’s outing at California’s Mojave Air and Space Port was the fourth test flight for the plane, which is named after a mythical giant bird and ranks as the world’s largest aircraft by wingspan. Its 385-foot spread is more than half again as wide as the wings of a Boeing 747.

Allen never got to see Roc take to the air: He died in 2018 at the age of 65, just months before the plane’s first flight. But under new ownership, Stratolaunch is following through on Allen’s efforts to develop the plane as a flying launch pad.

A month ago, Stratolaunch’s test pilots retracted and extended the plane’s left mid-main landing gear. Today’s follow-up test validated full landing gear operations, including door functionality and alternate gear extension. Pilots also evaluated Roc’s general performance during a flight that reached an altitude of 16,000 feet and lasted for an hour and 43 minutes.

Get the full story on GeekWire