Pentagon’s Mach 20 Glider Disappears, Whacking ‘Global Strike’ Plans

Pentagon’s Mach 20 Glider Disappears, Whacking ‘Global Strike’ Plans

The Pentagon’s controversial plan to hit terrorists half a planet away suffered a setback this weekend, after an experimental hypersonic glider disappeared over the Pacific Ocean.

In its first flight test. the Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 (HTV-2) was supposed to be rocket-launched from California to the edge of space. Then the HTV-2 would could screaming back into the atmosphere, maneuvering at twenty times times the speed of sound before landing north of the Kwajalein Atoll, 30 minutes later and 4100 nautical miles away. Thinly wedge-shaped for better lift, equipped with autonomous navigation for more precision, and made of carbon-carbon to withstand the assault of hypersonic flight, the hope was it could fly farther and more accurately at a lower angle of attack than other craft returning to Earth.

At least, that was the idea. Instead, nine minutes after launch, Darpa researchers lost contact with the HTV-2. They’re still trying to figure out why. The agency says the flight test wasn’t a total bust: The craft deployed from its rocket booster, performed some maneuvers in the air, and “achieved controlled flight within the atmosphere at over Mach 20,” Darpa spokesperson Johanna Jones says.

Read the full article here.

So the HTV-2 just disappears and the Pentagon simply can't find it? I wonder if that thing had a payload in it, and I'm wondering if this whole "disappearing act" is just a bunch of bull# so when some big missile(s) hit some other country and start WWIII the US can say they had nothing to do with it...

Okay I might be overdoing it there a bit, but seriously, where did this thing go? If it was in orbit around the planet they would have found it by now.

I think it's possible they lost it, and it is in orbit around the earth right now but they don't want to announce it because another country might try and get their hands on it.

What do you all think?

Wow that's crazy! I wonder how much something like that cost? Maybe NASA got pissed and shot it out the sky.

Originally posted by highlyoriginal
Okay I might be overdoing it there a bit....

I think so.

The thing is lying at the bottom of the ocean, or at least what's left of it.

The media always like to make hay out of military experiments gone bad.

Just remember the V-22 just a couple of years ago was considered impossible to fly.

Oh well, never mind.

A few more tens (or hundreds) of millions of tax payer dollars will buy another one to try again with.

Originally posted by highlyoriginal
So the HTV-2 just disappears and the Pentagon simply can't find it? I wonder if that thing had a payload in it, and I'm wondering if this whole "disappearing act" is just a bunch of bull# so when some big missile(s) hit some other country and start WWIII the US can say they had nothing to do with it...

How in the $#!% can the pentagon lose something?
With all that money coming in, and "technology" they have...COME ON!

This is ridiculous.
Even I would know if my model airplane crashed.

I like your WWIII quote. That's pretty funny.
Who knows? Anything could happen! False Flag event or not.



I'm not saying they screwed up, but they screwed up.

reply to post by havok


I'm glad you got my bit of sarcasm about the WWIII stuff, although in reality, anything is possible, right?

But what you said is exactly what I was thinking... How can the pentagon lose anything? Especially something they just spent so much money on, and made such a big deal out of. This is actually going to make the US look like idiots to other countries, in fact maybe this is was all to entice another country to attack... who knows? I could keep speculating, but I'm hoping more information comes to light.

If this thing in fact went down on this planet on land/water then I'm sure someone would have seen it and reported it as some sort of UFO or something - so maybe we should check UFO reports and such for the past couple days. If no one saw anything then I doubt it has hit this earth, it may be in orbit as I said, or simply gone out of orbit if it went off course and is now flying through space (which once again, just speculation, could have been the point from the beginning). It would be a great way to cover up a space program that the government doesn't want the public knowing about...

Originally posted by havok
How in the $#!% can the pentagon lose something?
With all that money coming in, and "technology" they have...COME ON!

Simple.

Some guy lights the fuse, and they all put their fingers in their ears and run away behind something.

It goes woooosssh off into outer space, but the telemetry failed to "call home".

So it goes "splash" somewhere over the horizon.
It is a bloody big ocean out there.

Originally posted by Silver Shadow
Simple.

Some guy lights the fuse, and they all put their fingers in their ears and run away behind something.

Sounds like my buddies and I in my backyard!

But, I can't let the most powerful spy network in the world slide on this one.
They have the resources to track individual sounds from space now (theory).
So how can they lose anything?
I guess anything can fail.

Sure it could of sank into the ocean, but they should still be able to track it.
I can guarantee they had satellites tracking it.
Up until moment of impact?


[edit on 28-4-2010 by havok]

reply to post by havok



Yeah you know I wonder if there was an impact somewhere and it's 'hush-hush' at the moment? Like I said more information will have to be leaked out or reported before we know what really is going on or really happened.

It's a tiny little "experimental" craft. That it didn't make it on it's maiden voyage is not that surprising. You wouldn't need much of an error to obliterate the poor wee thing.

It seems rather obvious where its at. The craft was traveling at over Mach 20 when they lost contact. At that speed, the thing all but disintegrated, probably not more than a second or two after they lost control of it. Its in about a billion little pieces scattered all over the Pacific Ocean. That's where its at.

The "glider." More like surf plane, must not have been equipped with On-Star.

Give me a break, there is no way they did not put a GPS tracker on this aircraft. .

reply to post by clay2 baraka


I'm sure they did, but in order to work, it has to make it to the ground in one piece. If it broke up anywhere near Mach 20, the odds of that happening aren't very good.

elvis stole it he needed a new ride.



i agree with whats been said its in a million pieces at the bottom of the sea anything going that fast a total catastropic failure is what indeed happened.

this is what the us is doing while the russians are developings new nukes and the "dad of all bombs"

chinese is maturing in a superpower with a modern military force not so much imitating us and russian desgins and tech.

watch out for china seriously.

and china doesnt have liberals whining ....we're spending too much on defense we need more entitlements.

What happens when something impacts the ocean at Mach 20 ?
pieces will be about the size of a coffee cup

Could man even survive the acceleration to Mach 20 ?
Kind of like an advanced Predater Drone
Moveing so fast the eye cant follow then fire a rocket
Lets see plane moveing at Mach 20 the rocket is already at mach 20 at launch..could the rocket be controled ?