Stratolaunch LLC has named Zachary Krevor as the new chief executive of the aerospace company.
Krevor had previously served as president and chief operating officer of the Mojave firm that has built the world’s largest airplane, the Roc. His appointment to replace former Chief Executive Jean Floyd is effective immediately.
Prior to joining Stratolaunch, he worked as an engineer on the Lockheed Martin Orion program and as a member of Lockheed’s Altair Lunar Lander team. He was also Chief Systems Engineer on the Sierra Nevada Corporation’s Dream Chaser program.
Krevor said that he was proud to be a leader of a great team committed to being an important testing asset for national defense programs.
“Given recent world events, the need for hypersonic flight testing has never been greater for our country,” Krevor said in a statement. “Stratolaunch is steadfast in its mission to accelerate hypersonic technology development and hasten delivery of this capability to our nation.”
Stratolaunch is developing the Talon-A, a vehicle that is a rocket-propelled, autonomous, reusable testbed carrying customizable payloads at speeds above Mach 5. The Talon-A would be launched from the Roc, which would carry it aloft.
It anticipates beginning hypersonic flight testing this year and delivering services to government and commercial customers next year, according to the company.
Founded in 2011 by the late billionaire Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft Corp., Stratolaunch was sold by Allen’s investment firm Vulcan Inc. about a year after Allen died in 2018. The new owner has been identified in media reports as Cerberus Capital Management, a private equity firm specializing in distressed companies.