Past air-launch rocket proposals

[Blackstar]

I’m sure I’ve exchanges messages with Blackstar and others of this before, but the HIAC camera proposed for Peace Jack was eventually replaced with the SYERS camera system for the U2. I mention this as this camera was then adapted to various experimental lightweight IMINT satellites under the TACSAT and ORS (Operationally Responsive Space) programmes.

You did, but I forget stuff, so mention again and again...

FYI, for everybody who doesn't know what Peace Jack was, it was a fascinating project to upgrade an Israeli F-4 Phantom into a real hotrod reconnaissance plane--make it go real fast and carry a powerful camera called the HIAC. Program got canceled, but there's a hazy crossover of cameras created for high altitude reconnaissance planes and those created for satellites.

[Blackstar]

Here is a new one. Although I like the idea of F-4 Phantoms continuing flying, I don't expect this project to work out.

https://www.twz.com/air/f-4-phantoms-sought-by-private-space-launch-company

[LittleBird]

Here is a new one. Although I like the idea of F-4 Phantoms continuing flying, I don't expect this project to work out.

https://www.twz.com/air/f-4-phantoms-sought-by-private-space-launch-company

Am I the only one here who would like to see them fly a rocket assisted Starfighter from their collection straight up, with some sort of satellite launcher payload ;-)

Or have I just watched the Right Stuff too often ;-)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzgIHMzJ680#ddg-play

[Proponent]

Why would vertical launch from a Starfighter be desirable? By the time a conventional launch vehicle reaches, say, 50,000 ft, it is well into its gravity turn.

[Blackstar]

Air launch is not desirable at all. That's one of the lessons of this thread.

[Blackstar]

Just came across this one from 2016:

[Apollo22]

Lighters-than-airs are even worse than the usual air launch, as their payload is even more limited.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Whales

Even at such giant size, payload is barely a few dozen metric tons, way too small for any significant rocket. Albeit the coolness factor of a zeppelin launching rockets would be hard to beat. 

[Blackstar]

I did not know this one existed. Now they are ceasing operations:

https://spacenews.com/french-space-defense-startup-dark-ceases-operations/

French space defense startup Dark ceases operations
by Sandra Erwin October 11, 2025   

WASHINGTON — Dark, a French startup developing air-launched spacecraft technology to capture and dispose of orbital objects, has shut down operations after struggling to establish a sustainable business model, the company announced this week.

The four-year-old Paris-based firm said the decision to cease operations was made by founders and the board following years of work on technology designed to address space debris and potential security threats in orbit.

“This difficult decision, taken by the founders and the board after years of dedication, was ultimately a necessary one,” the company said in a statement.

Dark was founded by veterans from European defense contractors MBDA and Thales with the goal of demonstrating a space weapon system that would launch from a modified commercial aircraft, navigate to orbital targets, capture them and deposit them in the South Pacific Ocean. The company raised approximately $11 million in venture funding.

[StraumliBlight]

This has just popped up at secret projects. https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/fenix-space-towed-glider-air-launch-system-tgals.44511/

I'm not pretending to be an aerospace engineer (nor a rocket scientist, but Shania Twain said it wasn't impressing her, so...)

But really. The concept sounds ludicrously stupid. Why not just hang the rocket on the bizjet ? why adding towing a glider ? and don't tell "because the bizjet is not modified for the rocket" yeah, sure dude. It is modified for towing. A glider. With a rocket ticking bomb underneath.

What could possibly go wrong ? Particularly at takeoff ?

1229-EX-CN-2025 [Dec 11]

Fenix Space is focused on revolutionizing space access through innovative, cost-effective launch technologies. Its core mission is to develop a towed glider air-launch system (TGALS) that enables rapid, on-demand orbital launches of spacecraft payloads without traditional rocket constraints like launch windows or delays. By towing a remotely piloted glider (carrying the payload) to high altitudes using a business jet-class aircraft and releasing it for powered ascent, Fenix aims to achieve up to daily flight cadences at 1/20th to 1/100th the cost of conventional methods.

[...]

Fenix Space will be flying the Fenix Alpha which is an 18ft 370lb 1/3rd scale unmanned glider. During testing, the Fenix Alpha will be towed up to 5000ft AGL by a manned aircraft and then released. The Fenix Alpha will then perform some maneuvers before landing back on the runway. The total flight time is less than 30 mins.

Flight operations will be conducted under a Certificate of Authorization (COA) that is being submitted by Northern Plains UAS Test site for airspace at Oklahoma Space Port. The COA will include the airspace within 4nm radius and up to 12000ft MSL of the Clinton/Sherman Airport (KCSM).

[leovinus]

Just obtained an European document from 1965 which discusses the use of the British AVRO Vulcan B2, Concorde and F100s to air-launch Blue Streak and Diamant. About 26 pages. Nice reading but sadly only the first part of the report. I'll report more details later but I wondered whether anyone has more info already? 

[Blackstar]

I am not sure what publication these are from, but that Mercury drop is interesting. The obvious question is "why?"