The Stratolaunch Roc, the world's largest aircraft, is back in action. In fact, the flight this time broke the record from the previous flight.
The aircraft, designed by the late Microsoft founder Paul Allen, successfully completed a flight test on Friday (13/1) United States (US) time.
Flying over the Mojave desert region of California, USA, the Stratolaunch Roc is able to fly for six hours above an altitude of 22,500 feet or 6,860 meters, which is the longest flying record compared to the previous one.
The world's largest aircraft, Stratolaunch Roc, successfully passed its 9th test flight and broke a record when flying over the Mojave desert, California, USA, Friday (13/1/2023). Photo: Gauntlet Aerospace/Christian Turner
This is the 9th overall test flight and the second in which the world's largest aircraft carries the Talon-A hypersonic vehicle.
"Our amazing team is continuing to make progress on our test schedule, and it is through their hard work that we are getting closer to a safe separation and our first hypersonic flight test," said Stratolaunch CEO and President Zachary Krevor. 1/2023).
Furthermore, the successful test flight of the Stratolaunch Roc this time will provide data for the company to reduce risk and launch the Talon-A hypersonic vehicle smoothly in the next test.
At the end of this, the company is slated to conduct "captive carry" tests, ie laying the groundwork for the Talon-A's drop test.
"We are very excited for what is to come this year, as we bring online hypersonic flight test services to our customers and nationwide," he said.
Paul Allen founded Stratolaunch in 2011, whose original goal was to launch a rocket into space from the air. This concept is also being worked on by Virgin Orbit with its LauncherOne rocket and Northrop Grumman with its Pegasus.
Allen who died in 2018. The company was bought by Cerberus Capital Management and began to divert it, namely the launch of hypersonic vehicles.
Dubbed as the largest aircraft because of the Stratolaunch Roc because it has a weight of 226.7 tons with a wingspan of 117 meters. In addition, this one giant has six jet engines accompanied by 28 wheels.
When compared to the Antonov An-225 Mriya which was recently destroyed by Russia which invaded Ukraine since February 24, 2022, the Stratolaunch Roc has two bodies by combining two Boeing 747 jumbo jets.