Stratolaunch to launch hypersonic vehicles from world's biggest airplane
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Stratolaunch has announced a new use for the world's largest airplane.
According to its website, Stratolaunch has reinvented itself as a builder, tester and operator of hypersonic vehicles -- those that can travel at least five times the speed of sound, or Mach 5.
The gigantic, six-engine aircraft known as Stratolaunch has a 385-foot wingspan, weighs about 500,000 pounds and is the dream of late Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen.
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"Our hypersonic testbeds will serve as a catalyst in sparking a renaissance in hypersonic technologies for our government, the commercial sector and academia," Stratolaunch CEO W. Jean Floyd said in a statement on the company's website.
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Those vehicles will include Stratolaunch's Talon-A, a 28-foot-long, 6,000-pound reusable craft capable of reaching Mach 6.
"[Talon-A] will conduct long-duration flight at high Mach, and glide back for an autonomous, horizontal landing on a conventional runway. It will also be capable of autonomous takeoff, under its own power, via a conventional runway," according to Stratolaunch.
The world's largest aircraft conducted a successful first flight over California's Mojave Desert in April 2019, Fox News has previously reported.
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While Stratolaunch calls its aircraft the world's largest, other airplanes exceed it in length from nose to tail. They include the six-engine Antonov AN 225 cargo plane, which is 275.5 feet long, and the Boeing 747-8, which is just over 250 feet long.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.