Stratolaunch said that due to unexpected problems encountered by the team, the sixth flight test of its super large Chinese transport aircraft was completed ahead of schedule.
The California based company founded by Microsoft co-founder paulallen more than a decade ago said in a twitter update: “when we completed the ROC test operation, we encountered a test result that showed that we could not achieve all the goals of this flight.”. “We decided to land, check the data and prepare for the next flight.”
Stratolaunch’s 385 foot wide twin fuselage aircraft is the world’s largest aircraft with a wingspan. Stratolaunch has been testing ROC at the Mojave Aerospace port and is preparing to use the aircraft as a flight launch pad for a rocket driven hypersonic test vehicle.
The company was acquired from Allen manor by a private equity company in 2019, but did not specify the nature of the test results that led to the decision to acquire. It is worth mentioning that one of the key objectives of this flight is to expand the test range of the central wing pylon that will carry and release hypersonic vehicles.
In a post flight statement, stratolaunch said that once flight team members encounter unexpected test results, they will focus on verifying the overall performance and handling characteristics of the aircraft, adding pylon hardware, and verifying landing gear operation.
Before taking off, stratolaunch said that today’s flight test was expected to last 3.5 hours, but the actual flight time was 1 hour and 26 minutes. The company said the ROC reached a height of 15000 feet.
Today’s test was conducted more than a month after the successful fifth flight test. Stratolaunch plans to begin testing its talon-a hypersonic aircraft later this year.
Zacharykreevor, CEO and President of stratolaunch, said: “today’s flight is based on previous successful flights and hardware improvements.”. “We will use this flight experience to complete comprehensive tests in the next few months and prepare for the test flight of Talon A.”