NY to LA in TWELVE minutes: Hypersonic aircraft that flies at 20 times the speed of sound

NY to LA in TWELVE minutes: Hypersonic aircraft that flies at 20 times the speed of sound takes to skies

An experimental unmanned aircraft that fly at 20 times the speed of sound is to undergo a crucial test flight on Thursday.

The Falcon HTV-2 will be launched on a rocket into space then will glide back down to Earth at speeds of 13,000mph.

The previous test flight lasted only nine minutes before being deliberately crashed as a safety measure due to technical difficulties.

This mission, should it succeed, could set new records in sub-orbital space travel and pave the way for a generation of super weapons.

The rocket carrying the Falcon will take off Thursday, weather permitting, from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California aboard an Air Force Minotaur IV rocket, which is a decommissioned ballistic missile.

The test was originally scheduled for Wednesday.
The Falcon will then separate off and come back down at colossal speeds - it would take less than 12 minutes to fly from New York to Los Angeles, a journey which takes a normal jet more than five hours.

The project is being developed by The Pentagon and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) as part of a new generation of hypersonic weapons that can strike faster than missiles.
The U.S. military hopes it will enable them to hit terrorists or rogue states anywhere in the world in under an hour.


Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk...

oh great, more military developments. I think WE..The People! want civil developments not military. My guess we are all sick of war!

An interesting leap in avionics if you ask me. If we are hitting 13k mph I wonder when they will acknowledge Aurora? I also wonder if this isnt a shot across the bow to Russia and China, who recently unveiled their own stealth fighters variants to counter ours.

When China shot a missile and brought down one of its satellites, we in turn demonstrated we had that capability and that it was now ship based as well.

Ive also noticed DARPA is in the news more and more lately as well.

The only other curious thing I noticed about this aircraft is it shares design characteristics with the X-37B, which is also an unmanned vehicle.

Thoughts?

jeebus.. haven't they got enough toys already?

imagine what one of them crashing into the earth at that speed would be like.

I just don't see why something like this needs to be about weapons, a new generation of 'super weapons' no less. These efforts should be directly developed for civilian/commercial use, not to make bigger and more sophisticated weapons. What the hell is wrong with us?

I'm pretty sure space based weapons would be better and are probably already up there..

And didn't anyone tell the Government we have an issues with carbon and global warming?

Hypersonic aircraft?
And here was I thinking that the failure of the Concorde to start up again and the failure of the Russian equivalent showed that there really isnt a market for hugely mindbogglingly expensive airflight.

Originally posted by Xcathdra
... and pave the way for a generation of super weapons.
...part of a new generation of hypersonic weapons that can strike faster than missiles.
The U.S. military hopes it will enable them to hit terrorists or rogue states anywhere in the world in under an hour.

Ah, but of course the American military has bucketloads of cash.

"The project is being developed by The Pentagon and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) as part of a new generation of hypersonic weapons that can strike faster than missiles.
The U.S. military hopes it will enable them to hit terrorists or rogue states anywhere in the world in under an hour."


I thought ICBM's can hit on the other side in 30 minutes or so... Am I missing something?


Deebo

Beats the subway: Flying between New York City and Los Angeles might one day be less than 12 minutes

yeah, for the super rich like Al Gore on the way to another MMGW summit..

Explanation: S&F!

This is complete EPIC FAIL! Here is why...

DARPA Falcon Project [wiki]

The latest project to be announced under the Falcon banner was a fighter-sized unmanned aircraft called "Blackswift" which would take off from a runway and accelerate to Mach 6 before completing its mission and landing again.

Now I am very aware this program was cancelled and therefor ...

In October 2008 it was announced that HTV-3X or Blackswift did not receive needed funding in the fiscal year 2009 defense budget and had been canceled. The Hypersonic Cruise Vehicle program will continue with reduced funding.

So these vehicals will be hypersonic drones and those positions are ALREADY covered by these oldskool weapon platforms ...

Minuteman III [wiki]

Lockheed A-12: M-21 [wiki]

Lockheed D-21 [wiki]

One notable variant of the basic A-12 design was the M-21, used to carry and launch the Lockheed D-21, an unmanned, faster and higher-flying reconnaissance drone. The M-21 was a modified version of the A-12 with a second cockpit for a Launch Control Operator/Officer (LCO) in the place of the A-12's Q bay; the M-21 also included a pylon on its back for mounting the drone. The D-21 was completely autonomous; after being launched it would overfly the target, travel to a predetermined rendezvous point and eject its data package. The package would be recovered in midair by a C-130 Hercules and the drone would self-destruct.

The program to develop this system was canceled in 1966 after a drone collided with the mother ship at launch, destroying the M-21. The crew survived the midair collision but the LCO drowned when he landed in the ocean and his flight suit filled with water. The modified D-21B drone was carried on a pylon under the wing of the B-52 bomber. The drone performed operational missions over China from 1969 to 1971.

Personal Disclosure: Its the 21st century and they expect me to be impressed with them reinventing the wheel!

Originally posted by Deebo
I thought ICBM's can hit on the other side in 30 minutes or so... Am I missing something?

The bit missing from the news article is the emphasis on travel through the earth's atmosphere.
Things in low earth orbit (and your average global hitting nuke missile) travel at 17000 mph.
Hoever this thing is hoped to achieve 13000mph, but in the upper reaches of the earths atmosphere.
Why is this important? Dunno.

But reading the wikipedia page on it, this thing has been in development since 2003 and other projects and BILLIONS of dollars before it stretching back through the decades. So if there's anyone on ATS living near Vandenberg Air Force Base, you better go watch because this is one of the most expensive things you will ever see.

Originally posted by Deebo
"The project is being developed by The Pentagon and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) as part of a new generation of hypersonic weapons that can strike faster than missiles.
The U.S. military hopes it will enable them to hit terrorists or rogue states anywhere in the world in under an hour."


I thought ICBM's can hit on the other side in 30 minutes or so... Am I missing something?


Deebo

Yes - apparently instead of using a million dollar missile to blow up a tent in the desert, we can use a much more expensive weapon that brings the term overkill to a whole new level.

I havent seen any comment, but doesnt it look like a varaint of the X-37B?

Originally posted by sir_slide
I just don't see why something like this needs to be about weapons, a new generation of 'super weapons' no less. These efforts should be directly developed for civilian/commercial use, not to make bigger and more sophisticated weapons. What the hell is wrong with us?

I think in a fantasy world your right,
but in the real world, if we do not stay
on top of the best weapons available
other countries will develop them
and use them on us...

So, in respect to the children of America...
Thank you

I do not think you understand..

Space weapons are outlawed...
Who ever owns space owns the world...
This is a close to a space weapon as you can get
without it really being a space weapon..

that's right, and if space weapons get banned then convert it to a passenger carrying vehicle or super fast cargo plane.

Just like what Germany did before world war 2 with long range passenger planes (that come in quite handy as bombers).

Win win all around.

this idea will be quickly forgotten like the ole' concord

I wonder why there ain't no real photographs of the actual vehicle??

It says the first test lasted 9 minutes and they crashed it on purpose because they were afraid of what might happen, how do u crash something in space? If that thing hits the ground going that fast would be a big boom.

Eh they probably swan dived it into the ocean...

reply to post by Evanzsayz


This could be of your interest:

de.valka.cz...


And I found the concepts of the aircrafts (but still no real pic of course):

media.defenseindustrydaily.com...

#MOD NOTE:#

This is ridiculous, in the past 22 hours three threads have been started on the same topic. Does anyone bother to look anymore or is it all about gaining ATS points? And where are the mods in all of this?