California -based emerging company withdrew two trips from two reusable planes, which became the first completely independent drone of Mach 5.
Talon-A2 of Stratolaunch has completed a series of test trips to the Pentagon missile defense agency, part of the Voice Test Testing Program that repeats the Cold War era efforts such as X-15, which retired in 1968. open this week.
“We have now shown the speed of sound, and we added the complexity of a full runway with the immediate load recovery and reuse,” Zakari Krifor, President and CEO of Stratolaunch said in a statement. The primary model Talon-A is an independent reusable plane capable of flying at least five times the speed of sound. During its experimental flights, ROC – the largest aircraft that was ever built – released the car over the Pacific Ocean. ROC was launched from Stratolaunch with Talon-A1 tucked in her stomach before the hyperactivity vehicle turned her own journey and landed at Vandinburg’s space base.

When it was established in 2011, Stratolaunch aims to use ROC to launch the Orbital ATK PEGASUS XL missile in space. After the death of its founder Paul Allen in 2018, the company turned the gear into a focus on developing highly developing chest, publication and aviation vehicles instead. In December 2021, layer layer Declare Holding with the Pentagon missile defense agency to provide a test to develop defense strategies against high -end threats.
In March 2024, Talon-A1 was launched on the first supported test tripReaching the high-rise speeds that did not reach Mach 5. Unlike Talon-A1, the latest preliminary model for Stratolaunch, Talon-A2 can be completely reused. The company is developing future versions of Talon-A, which will be built with palaces and able to carry customized loads at non-audio speeds. Stratolachnch also works on a vehicle larger than the speed of sound, which is called Talon-Z, and Spyplin, nicknamed the Black ice, which carries tonnas-pass passengers-to the Earth’s orbit.
The last Talon-A2 flights have set the first excessive flights since the X-15 program conducted by the US Air Force and NASA. The X-15 sounding plane was launched from the B-52, and a total of 199 times has fled over 10 years. The program ended in the late 1960s due to the lack of financing and the transformation of the focus towards tropics.
The Ministry of Defense has shown a renewed interest in high -speed vehicles, as other countries such as China and Russia are developing them. The United States has never managed a non -reusable non -sound vehicle, which can significantly reduce costs. “The display of the reuse of non-audio test vehicles that can be fully recovered is an important milestone for Mach-TB,” George Rumford, Director of the Ministry of Defense Test Resources Center, said in a statement. “The lessons learned from this campaign will help us reduce the time of the car shifting from months to weeks.”
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