Stratolaunch announced that the largest aircraft in the world has successfully launched the Talon hypersonic missile over the Mojave Desert.
The Stratolaunch Roc aircraft looks like two large common wing airliners joined together. The aircraft is designed to carry the Talon at high altitudes. The missile can maneuver at 6 times the speed of sound and the prototype is expected to evolve into a hypersonic drone.
“This is the first integrated flight test of our Talon launch system“said Brandon Wood, vice president of programs and operations at Stratolaunch. The company was founded in 2011 by late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.
The Stratolaunch Roc has an impressive wingspan of nearly 117 meters, 6 Boeing 747 engines and two fuselages, each 72 meters long. The empty Stratolaunch weighs 250 tons, and fully loaded – 590,000 kilograms.
However, the focus of the test is not the largest aircraft, but the Talon missile. Little is known about it, but hypersonic aircraft and drones are of great importance to the military. Stratolaunch does not hide the fact that the United States government is its main client.
