Maker of World’s Largest Plane Tapped for Hypersonic Test Campaign

Stratolaunch, whose turbofan-powered “Roc” boasts a longer wingspan than even the “Spruce Goose,” on Thursday said the DOD’s Missile Defense Agency (MDA) awarded it a $24.7 million competitive agreement for a “groundbreaking” hypersonic flight test mission. The campaign will see the company’s Spirit of Mojave launch platform deploy its Talon-A testbed at speeds north of Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound, later this year.

In addition to the longest wingspan ever flown, the Roc boasts a 1.3 million-pound maximum takeoff weight, allowing it to carry a staggering 250 tons of cargo. Stratolaunch previously test flew the gargantuan aircraft for the Navy under a project called the Multiservice Advanced Capability Hypersonic Test Bed (MACH-TB). It deployed Talon-A, an autonomous, reusable test aircraft designed to evaluate defense technology at extreme speeds, again and again.

The Navy in 2023 awarded the firm a contract for five more Talon-A MACH-TB test flights. Last year, Roc deployed the first reusable Talon-A model, TA-1, for its first powered flight, coming just shy of hitting Mach 5.

With Spirit of Mojave, though, the company believes it can conduct Talon-A test flights beyond the U.S. west coast. The modified Boeing 747—whose name pays homage to the Mojave, California, spaceflight community and the Spirit of St. Louis’ historic long-endurance flight in 1927—was acquired from the now-defunct Virgin Orbit in 2023. According to Zachary Krevor, president and CEO of Stratolaunch, it can launch the company’s hypersonic testbed from “any airport capable of accommodating a 747.”

Stratolaunch and the MDA will spend the next few months making modifications to Spirit of Mojave before rolling it out for a test campaign toward the end of the year. The partners said the goal of the project will be to test advanced missile defense systems that could take out hypersonic weapons.

“Hypersonic threats are difficult to detect and counter due to their speed, maneuverability, low-altitude flight paths, and unpredictable trajectories," said Michael Kryzak director of systems, targets and countermeasures for MDA. “We are pleased to partner with Stratolaunch to test our defensive architecture against these potential threats.”

Separately, Stratolaunch is working on a new MACH-TB project alongside a team of contractors led by Kratos, which earlier this week received a nearly $1.5 billion contract from the military’s Test Resource Management Center.

FLYING inquired about whether the two projects are related but did not receive an immediate response from Stratolaunch.

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