First Talon-A Test Vehicle Unveiled for World’s Largest Airplane

Stratolaunch, operator of the world’s largest airplane, has unveiled a separation vehicle test article which will be used to demonstrate the massive aircraft’s air-to-launch capabilities.

Thom Patterson

Friday, May 27, 2022 at 07:27 AM ET

Verified

Stratolaunch’s first iteration of its Talon-A launch vehicle is called TA-0. [Courtesy: Stratolaunch/Domenic Moen]

Key Takeaways:

Stratolaunch has unveiled its first Talon-A test article, TA-0, designed to validate the payload release system of Roc, the world's largest airplane, for air-to-launch capabilities.
This development is a key step towards Stratolaunch's goal of becoming a national asset for hypersonic flight testing by 2023.
Future, rocket-powered Talon-A versions will be autonomous, reusable, and capable of reaching Mach 5+ speeds, eventually aiding the Pentagon in threat replication for hypersonic weapons.

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Stratolaunch, operator of the world’s largest airplane, has unveiled a separation vehicle test article which will be used to demonstrate the massive aircraft’s air-to-launch capabilities.

This first Talon-A vehicle—dubbed TA-0— is critical to the mission of the airplane known as Roc. TA-0 will be used to test and validate Roc’s sophisticated payload release system. The airplane—the world’s largest by wingspan—completed its fifth test flight earlier this month.