Private, hypersonic rocket lowers test costs

Hypersonic flight is a hot area of aerospace research right now, especially for military applications. Flight speeds of Mach 5 or above greatly lower the vulnerability of airframes to defensive countermeasures such as surface-to-air missiles. Hypersonic flight in commercial aviation has been a dream for decades, but in both military and civilian applications, a great deal of research is still necessary to build practical, reasonable systems. Military research organizations and NASA have been the primary drivers of hypersonic flight research, but the private sector is now entering the field.

Mojave, California-based Stratolaunch has announced the successful test of an air-launched, hypersonic uncrewed test vehicle, the Talon-A. As a private company, Stratolaunch can be contracted to gather specific data in hypersonic flight in support of customer-specific aircraft and missile programs. This proprietary data can form an important and valuable source of intellectual property for air framers and give them a competitive advantage in what will almost certainly be a crowded and lucrative hypersonic market space.

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