Stratolaunch will use Roc, the largest plane in the world, as a platform to launch a series of hypersonic vehicles, called Talon

The gigantic plane, which started with the backing of the late Seattle billionaire Paul Allen, took off from California's Mojave Air and Space Port at 11:47 am yesterday (16/01) for its third test flight. Stratolaunch's six-engine Roc aircraft, named after a mythical giant bird, is the world's largest aircraft by wingspan. The Roc is 117 meters end-to-end. By way of comparison, the world's largest commercial airliner, the Antonov An-225, has a wingspan of 88 meters, and the Airbus A380, the largest passenger transport plane, is 79,7 meters!

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

The flight met all of the company's objectives, including testing landing gear retraction and extension on the left fuselage. The successful flight "meant we were one step closer to hypersonic flight," Zachary Krevor, Stratolaunch's president and chief operating officer, said on a call with reporters after the flight.

Watch the video below and watch the live stream of the test flight of the world's largest plane!

The flight took place almost nine months after the previous Roc test flight. That, in turn, came two years after the maiden flight of the plane, originally designed to serve as a platform for an airdrop system. After that first flight, the company changed ownership and changed direction to focus on hypersonic flight testing.

The plane returned to the airport four hours and 23 minutes after a flight that took the plane to a peak altitude of more than 7.160 meters and a top 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 ownership, Stratolaunch will use the Roc as a platform to launch a series of hypersonic vehicles, called the Talon. A prototype vehicle, called the TA-0, will be flown for a test drop over the Pacific Ocean. This will be followed by the first motor vehicle, TA-1, right at the end of the year.

This schedule will require Stratolaunch to accelerate the pace of aircraft testing. "You'll see us flying more often," Daniel Millman, Stratolaunch's chief technology officer, said on the call. “Before 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 plane's entire landing gear. "That's when we can really start expanding the envelope in earnest," Millman said. On the next flight, the company will install the pylon on the center wing segment to which the Talon vehicles will be attached.

Krevor and Millman declined to give a timeline for the next test flight, saying it would depend on reviewing data from that flight. The number of test flights will also depend on vehicle performance, as they gradually increase the Roc's altitude and speed to that "comparable to what you expect from a commercial airliner," Krevor said. “It will be our aim to complete the envelope expansion by the end of this year, and the number of flights will be dictated by aircraft performance.”

Both TA-0 and TA-1 are nearing completion, Millman said, including activating TA-1 for the first time last month. He added that the company is working "hand in hand" with Ursa Major Technologies, the company that is supplying the rocket engine that will power the TA-1 in that engine's qualification tests.