Stratolaunch to Launch Hypersonic Vehicles from World's Biggest Airplane
Stratolaunch plans to provide hypersonic test flights for a variety of customers.

By Mike Wall

Stratolaunch has found another use for the biggest airplane ever built.

The company, which Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen established in 2011, originally planned to launch satellites using the aircraft, which has a wingspan of 385 feet (117 meters). But Allen died in October 2018 and Stratolaunch was sold last year, raising questions about the company's future.

Stratolaunch's Talon-A, shown here in an artist's concept, is one of several new hypersonic vehicles to be launched from the company's massive carrier plane, the world's largest aircraft.
(Image: © Stratolaunch)

Some of those questions have now been answered. Stratolaunch's website now reveals that the company 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.