TA-2 First Recoverable Hypersonic Flight

You think you're going fast, but how can you go faster? Hypersonics has been around for a long time and when we say hypersonic we mean flying at speeds on the order of five times the speed of sound or greater. The United States is the pioneer of hypersonic flight. However, hypersonics in this country has also been a bit of a roller coaster. There are a set of capabilities now that our peer competitors have that we don't currently have in the United States. So it really is imperative that we not only match that capability but exceed it. Going back to the 1960s, America has led the forefront of hypersonic capability, technology, and flight experimentation. The X-15, the super fast rocket plane. 199 flights were made, many along the fringes of space. An X-15 was a workhorse and became a bedrock of research of hypersonic data. And that was a manned hypersonic aircraft. Talon A really pushes the boundary to be autonomous. Talon A-2, or TA-2 for short, is the very first hypersonic, fully reusable, fully autonomous flight test vehicle. This country really needs hypersonic flight test capability. A capability where we can demonstrate technologies in the hypersonic environment. To do that though, we had to go along and prove our capability. So we started with a subsonic glider that we called TA-0. Its role was to demonstrate that we could actually separate safely from our carrier aircraft, and then we coasted down and went into the ocean. Then we wanted to incrementally improve. So now we had to light the rocket engine. That vehicle was TA-1. An expendable system that went high supersonic was an absolutely great flight. Today now is about putting that all together. And it's a big deal to design a hypersonic vehicle that can come back and land at very, very slow speeds. TA-2 flight will make history. Flying those experiments and those new technologies on the vehicle and gathering flight test data. It is new. It has never been done before. Joshua Approach, ROC-01 super experimental. Mojave runway 30 looking for a clearance. Talon systems are all reporting good. ROC is reporting good and weather is all reporting good. ROC-01 squawk 4667. And test control, we had a good time here for takeoff. We bite the engine heater off and you are go. ROC-01 we're going to head out towards that water at this time. Okay, red team you're clear. Test control, you're go to take off now. Okay, go ahead Glenn. Okay, ready for takeoff, sir. Okay, here it comes. Today is a huge day for Talon-A. I'm ready to see TA-2 fly and land. The Talon-A vehicle is really the first autonomous reusable hypersonic demonstration and so that's a really important milestone for the nation. So this is a tremendous moment because now we can demonstrate the first reusable hypersonic aircraft since the X-15. And the aircrew has made their turn to the northeast and is tracking on the flight plan you see on your screen. T-0 drop time is 918 local Mojave time. That is what we estimate to be the hot pass drop. ROC-01 green range. So ROC is up now. We're expected to launch. Everyone should know their positions. Get to the aircraft then we'll go ahead and we will get the payloads and get back here and start doing everything we need to do for recovery to get the aircraft back in the trucks. Okay. Control, you are clear to release in accordance with steps 22 through 50. Release. Good release. And test control Talon's at 60,000 feet mach 1.15 nominal. Test control Talon's at 104,000 feet mach 5.0 on condition. Test control Talon is MECO nominal. And test control you are clear to descend. Test control we're 6.5 nautical miles out. We're on a nominal approach length. Test control Talon's 0.3 nautical miles away from the runway. Test control gear has deployed. Test control Talon's flaring. Test control Talon's touchdown. Test control Talon has landed. So we land on the ground. We give the customer their payload back. So now they can physically see how it performs. Talon A-2 is not just a success for Stroud Launch, but also a successful outcome for our customers and partners as well. I think it will open up opportunities that we might not even envision at this point for how we go from here. The team is ready. The vehicle's ready. It's important to get back to a capability that we once had in terms of reusable hypersonic aircraft. But it's also important to advance that capability. And that's what Stroud Launch does.