“Lessons Learned for How Instrumentation Enables Repeated, High Cadence, Hypersonic Flight”

Stratolaunch designs, manufactures, and operates a fleet of hypersonic aircraft, with many successful flights now completed.  These hypersonic airplanes, known as Talon-A, are the first autonomous hypersonic aircraft and are used in a variety of National Security mission sets.  Talon-A fly various hypersonic technologies and demonstrate them in the hypersonic environment; examples include various sensors, pressure and thermal instrumentation, and new materials.  Additionally, Talon-A acts as a surrogate for the hypersonic capabilities of peer adversaries, enabling US National Security users to evaluate their ability to detect and track a hypersonic system.  Talon-A offers the benefits of reusability and high cadence while performing hypersonic flights at a price two orders of magnitude lower than what has been cited by past Congressional reports.

A flight demonstration only occurs when the instrumentation can record and/or telemeter the flight data.  This paper will reveal the lessons learned from flying two hypersonic aircraft and the key instrumentation required for hypersonic flight.  Additionally, this paper will explore the changes and upgrades that have been made to the Talon-A instrumentation suite along with the rationale for those modifications.  Lessons learned to enable a high cadence of hypersonic flight will also be reviewed.  Finally, this paper will address the instrumentation approach to enable hypersonic flight at multiple locations around the world and considerations for future flights at new Ranges.