Stratolaunch Drops Stunning Air-to-Air Video of World’s Largest Airplane

Stratolaunch’s Roc performed its fifth flight Wednesday, lasting nearly five hours. [Courtesy: Stratolaunch]

Stratolaunch released stunning new air-to-air video Thursday, showing spectacular views of Roc, the world’s largest airplane by wingspan.

Shot from a Cessna Citation Bravo chase airplane during Roc’s fifth test flight Wednesday, the high-resolution video shows never-before-seen images of the six-engine, air-to-launch carrier flying near California’s Mojave Air and Space Port (KMHV).

Pilots Evan Thomas, Steve Rainey, and flight engineer Jake Riley put Roc through its paces during a nearly five-hour flight that included tests of the airplane’s eight landing gear assemblies, as well as its autopilot and yaw augmentation systems.

Aboard the chase airplane, pilots Ana Benet, Scott Schultz and flight engineer Vanessa Gonsenheim carefully shadowed Roc as cinematographer Domenic Moen shot the aircraft. Moen used a Sony A9 and a Canon R6 to capture video from inside the Citation’s cabin using a very small shoulder rig. “No need for a gimbal on such calm days with great pilots,” Moen told FLYING.

READ MORE: FLYING’S Ongoing Coverage of Stratolaunch

It also was Roc’s first test flight with a 15-foot-by-15-foot, 8,000-pound center-wing pylon, under development to eventually carry and launch hypersonic vehicle testbeds.

Roc’s wing measures 385 feet. That’s longer than an NFL football field as well as the orbiting International Space Station.

READ MORE: Longest Test Flight Yet for the World’s Largest Airplane

In the coming weeks and months, Roc’s flight campaign is expected to intensify, as pilots, engineers, and technicians work toward the first release test of Stratolaunch’s Talon-A vehicle demonstrator. Roc isn’t expected to be operational until mid- to late 2023.

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Thom PattersonAuthor

Thom is a former senior editor for FLYING. Previously, his freelance reporting appeared in aviation industry magazines. Thom also spent three decades as a TV and digital journalist at CNN’s bureaus in Washington and Atlanta, eventually specializing in aviation. He has reported from air shows in Oshkosh, Farnborough and Paris. Follow Thom on Twitter @thompatterson.