FLYING THE ROC!

Stratolaunch test pilot Evan Thomas on flying the world's largest operational airplane

- JAN TEGLER

The first time Stratolaunch test pilot and director of flight operations Evan Thomas beheld the company's massive six-engine, high-wing, twin-fuselage, payload-launch aircraft, he was "a bit daunted."

"I'll be honest, the first time I looked at it I went, 'Wow! I don't know that I can fly that. That's going to be a real challenge!"

That's quite an observation from a test pilot who commanded the U.S. Air Force's F-22 Combined Test Force and has over 3,500 hours in the F-16 as an operational fighter pilot and VISTA program test pilot with Calspan.

But the Roc-named for an enormous mythical bird of prey-evokes awe in all who see it. With a wingspan longer than a football field-385 feet-and a takeoff weight that can be up to 1.3 million pounds, Roc is the biggest composite airplane on the planet and the world's largest operational aircraft. Scaled Composites, the firm founded by famed designer Burt Rutan in Mojave, California, created Roc as its "Model 351" in 2012. It was intended to be a gigantic space launch vehicle if you will, meant to take large payload-carrying spacecraft to altitude for launch into orbit.

Rutan and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen founded Stratolaunch in 2011. But build challenges delayed its first flight until April 2019. By that time, Allen-also known for the warbirds he amassed for his terrific Flying Heritage Collection now belonging to Steuart Walton of Walmart-had passed away.

The Allen family supported development of the Roc for about a year after his death, then withdrew as Stratolaunch pivoted to a new business, using Roc as the launch vehicle for a hypersonic testbed known as "Talon-A."

With hypersonic missile and vehicle development a high priority for the Department of Defense, Stratolaunch recognized an opportunity to accelerate hypersonic research in the real world, outside of wind tunnels with Talon-A.