"airlaunch" redirects here. For the company, see AirLaunch.
A Boeing X-43 being air launched from under the wing of a B-52 Stratofortress.
Air launching is the practice of releasing a rocket, missile, parasite aircraft or other aircraft payload from a mother ship or launch aircraft.[1] The payload craft or missile is often tucked under the wing of the larger mother ship and then "dropped" while in flight.[2] It may also be stored within a bomb bay, beneath the main fuselage or even on the back of the carrier aircraft, as in the case of the D-21 drone.[3] Air launching provides several advantages over ground launching, giving the smaller craft an altitude and range boost, while saving it the weight of the fuel and equipment needed to take off on its own.[4]
^Alireza Forouzandeh Tabrizi (May 2015). "Air Launch" (PDF). San Jose State University. Retrieved April 11, 2023.
^Rebecca A. Mitchell. "A Conceptual Analysis of Spacecraft Air Launch Methods" (PDF). University of Colorado. Retrieved April 11, 2023.
^"Lockheed D-21B Drone | The Museum of Flight". Museum of Flight. Retrieved 2023-04-09.
Airlaunching is the practice of releasing a rocket, missile, parasite aircraft or other aircraft payload from a mother ship or launch aircraft. The payload...
only to Merritt Island, while the Air Force issued a general order renaming the Air Force launch site Cape Kennedy Air Force Station. This name was used...
AirLaunch was an aerospace design and development company headquartered in Kirkland, Washington.[when?] They had hoped to provide launch services for launching...
ALARM (AirLaunched Anti-Radiation Missile) is a British anti-radiation missile designed primarily to destroy enemy radars for the purpose of Suppression...
used by the Royal Navy Airlaunch, the practice of dropping an aircraft, rocket, or missile from a launch aircraft Rocket launch, first phase of a rocket...
Space Launch Complex 37 (SLC-37), previously Launch Complex 37 (LC-37), is a launch complex on Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. Construction...
aerial torpedo (also known as an airborne torpedo or air-dropped torpedo) is a torpedo launched from a torpedo bomber aircraft into the water, after which...
the United States Air Force for use as a missile launch and training base and in June 1957, North Camp Cooke was renamed Cooke Air Force Base (AFB), and...
mobile ocean platform (Sea Launch), and on a submarine. Launch vehicles can also be launched from the air.[citation needed] A launch vehicle will start off...
aviation, motherships have been used in the airborne aircraft carrier, airlaunch and captive carry roles. Some large long-range aircraft act as motherships...
flight test services. It was originally formed in 2011 to develop a new air-launched space transportation system, with its corporate headquarters located...
rocket sled launch, also known as ground-based launch assist, catapult launch assist, and sky-ramp launch, is a proposed method for launching space vehicles...
Space launch is the earliest part of a flight that reaches space. Space launch involves liftoff, when a rocket or other space launch vehicle leaves the...
States Air Force's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program and NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program. It was first launched from Cape...
It launched its first long haul route, between Incheon and Honolulu, in December 2015. It has operated cargo services since November 2013. Jin Air is...
vehicles exist for both surface-to-air missiles and surface-to-surface missiles. Early on, such missiles were launched from fixed sites and had to be loaded...
Space Force Station, Florida. The launch pad was used by the United States Air Force for 55 Titan III and Titan IV launches between 1965 and 2005. The facility...
was an air-launched rocket, designed to carry smallsat payloads of up to 300 kg (660 lb) into Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO), following airlaunch from a...
India and the Moskva of Russia. The land-launched and ship-launched versions are already in service. an air-launched variant of BrahMos which can be fired...
is used by United Launch Alliance (ULA) for Atlas V and Vulcan Centaur launches. Previously, it had been used by the United States Air Force for Titan IIIC...
the first stage launch platform (or mothership launch pad) for the airlaunch stage of the smallsat orbital launch vehicle, the LauncherOne. In 2017, the...
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