Cars and planes rarely share the same stretch of motion for more than a fleeting moment. Even rarer is the sight of a car running alongside a massive aircraft. Porsche has now rewritten that script with its latest test of the Cayenne Electric.
This wasn’t one of those flashy plane-versus-car drag races either. In a video released on Wednesday, Porsche took the Cayenne Electric to the Mojave Air and Space Port to evaluate its high-speed stability while the Stratolaunch team conducted several takeoffs and landings with its Roc aircraft. The Stratolaunch Roc, a twin-fuselage testbed used by the hypersonic flight testing company to launch rocket-powered vehicles, served as the perfect challenge for Porsche’s most powerful SUV to date.
Behind the wheel was former Porsche factory racer Patrick Long, who guided the Cayenne Electric alongside the Stratolaunch Roc during two takeoff runs, reaching speeds beyond 160 mph. Long then positioned the SUV between the Roc’s twin fuselages as it approached for landing. With 1139 horsepower available, the Cayenne Electric easily matched the thrust of the Pratt & Whitney-powered giant right up to its rotation speed. As part of the coordinated demonstration, aircraft crew chiefs Shauntel Williams and John McKinney accompanied Long inside the Porsche, maintaining continuous radio contact with the Roc’s flight crew.
Reflecting on the experience, Long said, “I never doubted the Cayenne’s power, but I was slightly uneasy about how responsive it would be to steering inputs, especially at such high speeds. Surprisingly, the landings were more challenging to time accurately. The plane is so enormous that you lose reliable visual cues for syncing up on the runway. Having the crew chiefs in the car to coordinate with the flight team was invaluable in making sure we didn’t undershoot or overshoot the aircraft.”
An FAA coordinator was present to oversee the test sessions. Porsche reported that the Cayenne Electric performed exactly as expected, maintaining pace with the Roc while benefiting from a calm aerodynamic zone between the two fuselages. Interestingly, the SUV consumed only 13 percent of its battery charge across four high-speed runs. No matter how you look at it, combining an experimental aircraft with a full-throttle electric SUV test is the type of bold experiment that hints at an exciting automotive future.
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