PRNewsfoto/Stratolaunch
The Stratolaunch Talon-A2 hypersonic drone successfully surpassed Mach 5 in back-to-back tests, the U.S. Department of Defense has confirmed. The reusable autonomous drone first exceeded Mach 5, the threshold for hypersonic speed and five times the speed of sound, in December 2024 and then did it again March 2025, exceeding the speed record it set in its previous flight.
The Talon-A2, in addition to going hypersonic during the tests, was also dropped from the world’s largest airplane, a carrier plane called Roc, which has a wingspan of 385 feet.
“With the data collected from this second flight, we are able to apply lessons learned to enhance the strength and performance of the Talon-A vehicles. While the team needs to complete its data review of flight two, the first flight review confirmed the robustness of the Talon-A design while demonstrating the ability to meet the full range of performance capabilities desired by our customers. We’ve now demonstrated hypersonic speed, added the complexity of a full runway landing with prompt payload recovery, and proven reusability. Both flights were great achievements for our country, our company, and our partners,” Dr. Zachary Krevor, President and CEO of Stratolaunch, said in a press release.
According to Stratolaunch, these completed flights demonstrated the United States’ first reusable hypersonic flights since the X-15 hypersonic research program ended in 1968.
“These flights were a huge success for our program and for the nation. The data collected from the experiments flown on the initial Talon-A flight has now been analyzed and the results are extremely positive,” said Scott Wilson, Program Manager of MACH-TB. “The opportunity for technology testing at a high rate is highly valuable as we push the pace of hypersonic testing.”
The Department of Defense Test Resource Management Center MACH-TB (Multi-Service Advanced Capability Hypersonic Test Bed) program is intended to increase the speed of testing for all commercially available hypersonic systems.
Stratolaunch was created by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen in 2011. Its initial goal was to develop a new air-launched space transportation system. It was acquired in 2019 by Cerberus Capital Management after Allen’s death in 2018 and now operates as a non-traditional defense contractor.
Content shared from brobible.com.