Roc Stratolaunch, The World’s Largest Airplane With The Largest Wingspan Measuring 117 Meters, 6 Engines, And One Of The Strangest Designs In The World, Completed Its First Test Flight Yesterday (January 16) Reaching A Speed Of 330 KM/H

Stratolaunch Will Use Roc, The Largest Airplane in The World, As A Platform To Launch A Series Of Hypersonic Vehicles Called Talon

The massive airplane, which started with the support of the late Seattle billionaire Paul Allen, took off from the Mojave Air and Space Port in California at 11:47 AM yesterday (01/16) for its third test flight. Stratolaunch’s six-engine Roc aircraft, named after a mythical giant bird, is the largest airplane in the world in terms of wingspan. The Roc measures 117 meters from tip to tip. By comparison, the largest commercial airplane in the world, the Antonov An-225, has a wingspan of 88 meters, and the Airbus A380, the largest passenger transport aircraft, has a wingspan of 79.7 meters!

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Company executives promise a higher flight activity rate this year, including the first flight of a hypersonic test vehicle.

The flight met all the company’s objectives, including testing the retraction and extension of the landing gear on the left fuselage. The successful flight “meant we were one step closer to hypersonic flight,” said Zachary Krevor, President and Chief Operating Officer of Stratolaunch, during a call with reporters after the flight.

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Watch The Video Below And Tune In To The Live Stream Of The Test Flight Of The World’s Largest Airplane!

The flight occurred nearly nine months after the previous Roc test flight. That, in turn, took place two years after the airplane’s inaugural flight, originally developed to serve as a platform for an airborne launch system. After that first flight, the company changed ownership and direction to focus on hypersonic flight tests.

The airplane returned to the airport four hours and 23 minutes after a flight that took the aircraft to a peak altitude of over 7,160 meters and a maximum speed of 330 kilometers per hour.

Stratolaunch Will Use Roc As A Platform To Launch A Series Of Hypersonic Vehicles Called Talon

Under this new direction, Stratolaunch will use Roc as a platform to launch a series of hypersonic vehicles called Talon. A vehicle prototype, named TA-0, will be piloted for a drop test over the Pacific Ocean. This will be followed by the first powered vehicle, TA-1, later this year.

This timeline will require Stratolaunch to accelerate its aircraft testing pace. “You’ll see us flying more frequently,” said Daniel Millman, Chief Technology Officer of Stratolaunch, during the call. “By the end of the year, we plan and expect to launch our first hypersonic test vehicle.”

The next flight will test the retraction of the entire landing gear of the airplane. “That’s where we can really start serious envelope expansion,” Millman said. In the following flight, the company will install the pylon in the central wing segment to which the Talon vehicles will be attached.

Krevor and Millman declined to give a timeline for the next test flight, stating that it will depend on the review of the data from this flight. The number of test flights will also depend on the vehicle’s performance as they gradually increase Roc’s altitude and speed to that “comparable to what you’d expect from a commercial aircraft,” Krevor said. “Our goal will be to complete envelope expansion by the end of this year, and the number of flights will be dictated by the aircraft’s performance.”

Both TA-0 and TA-1 are nearly complete, Millman said, including the activation of TA-1 for the first time last month. He added that the company is working “hand in hand” with Ursa Major Technologies, the company providing the rocket engine that will propel TA-1 during engine qualification tests.