{"id":17375,"date":"2022-06-16T21:22:34","date_gmt":"2022-06-16T13:22:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/stratolaunch-ascends-to-new-heights-with-successful-test-of-worlds-biggest-airplane\/"},"modified":"2022-06-16T21:22:34","modified_gmt":"2022-06-16T13:22:34","slug":"stratolaunch-ascends-to-new-heights-with-successful-test-of-worlds-biggest-airplane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/stratolaunch-ascends-to-new-heights-with-successful-test-of-worlds-biggest-airplane\/","title":{"rendered":"Stratolaunch ascends to new heights with successful test of world\u2019s biggest airplane"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full-width\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"630\" height=\"418\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/220616-stratolaunch1-630x418.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-704842\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/220616-stratolaunch1-630x418.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/220616-stratolaunch1-1260x836.jpg 1260w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/220616-stratolaunch1-768x510.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/220616-stratolaunch1-1536x1019.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/220616-stratolaunch1-2048x1359.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption>Stratolaunch\u2019s Roc airplane flies over California\u2019s Mojave Desert. (Stratolaunch via Twitter)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Stratolaunch says its mammoth carrier airplane rose to its highest altitude yet during its seventh flight test over California\u2019s Mojave Desert.<\/p>\n<p>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\u2019s test. <\/p>\n<p>If all goes according to plan, the twin-fuselage Roc airplane could begin flying Stratolaunch\u2019s Talon-A hypersonic test vehicles for captive-carry and separation testing as early as this year.<\/p>\n<p>One of the prime objectives for today\u2019s 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\u2019s seventh flight came a week after the sixth flight test, which couldn\u2019t achieve all of its objectives.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Stratolaunch Roc test pilots boarding the plane - return to flight a week after flight test number 6\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3WVemISnSYg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<\/figure>\n<p>\u201cToday\u2019s flight is a success story of the Stratolaunch team\u2019s ability to increase operational tempo to the pace desired by our customers for performing frequent hypersonic flight test,\u201d Zachary Krevor, Stratolaunch\u2019s CEO and president, said in a news release. \u201cFurthermore, the team reached a new altitude record of 27,000 feet, thereby demonstrating the aircraft performance needed for our Talon hypersonic vehicle to reach its wide design range of hypersonic conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Pentagon is expected to be a prime customer for Stratolaunch\u2019s services. The company already has a contract from the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory to assess the feasibility of conducting hypersonic flight tests for a wide range of Air Force experiments and payloads.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: revert;\">Roc is named after a giant mythical bird, in recognition of the 385-foot-wide craft\u2019s status as the world\u2019s biggest airplane as measured by wingspan. In the wake of this year\u2019s destruction of Ukraine\u2019s Antonov Mriya An-225 cargo aircraft, Roc also rates as the world\u2019s heaviest airplane at 250 tons.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Stratolaunch\u2019s Roc airplane flies over California\u2019s Mojave Desert. (Stratolaunch via Twitter) Stratolaunch says its mammoth carrier airplane rose to its highest altitude yet during its seventh flight test over California\u2019s 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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[39,564,4435,2489],"class_list":["post-17375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-aerospace","tag-aviation","tag-hypersonic-flight","tag-stratolaunch"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17375"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17375\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}