DARPA Space Plane Attempts Mach 20 Thursday

From: http://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/us-to-test-fastest-aircraft-ever-moves...

August , 2011 - US to test fastest aircraft ever, moves at 13,000mph

An aircraft scheduled to be tested by the Pentagon on Thursday is capable of reaching speeds of up to 13,000mph, or 3.6 miles a second.

An aircraft will take to the skies on Thursday that flies so fast it would only take 12 minutes for it to travel from LA to New York.

But before you start getting excited about the prospect of the technology being incorporated into the next generation of Boeing or Airbus aircraft, be aware that this is an unmanned machine being developed by the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency for military use.

A Wall Street Journal report says that if all goes to plan on Thursday's flight, the Pentagon's Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2, or HTV-2, could reach speeds of around 13,000mph -- that's 3.6 miles a second.

Weather permitting (a flight scheduled for Wednesday was scrapped due to bad weather), the test flight will begin on Thursday morning at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California when an Air Force Minotaur IV rocket takes the HTV-2 to the edge of space.

From there, the HTV-2 should separate from the rocket before flying over the Pacific at lightning speeds of up to Mach 20. At Mach 20, you could travel between London and Sydney in under 60 minutes.

The US military is interested in developing the hypersonic aircraft so that it can possess a machine which would be capable of reaching any part of the world in less than an hour. Presumably it would be armed to the teeth with weapons rather than delivering flowers.

Let's hope Thursday's test flight goes better than last year's attempt when controllers lost contact with the craft just a few minutes after launch. The event won't be shown online, though you can follow news and updates about it on the agency's Twitter feed.

Image: DARPA

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[JenovaDoll]

Ive heard this song before, someone help me out here

[PigMine3]

@JenovaDoll

The Crystal Method 'High Roller'

[KRWMSL]

ainda quem anda é esse caça, 21.000 km/H Deus mi livre, o que falta mais o homen inventar, em menos de 2 horas ele da dando a volta na terra.

[CodeByNight]

I wish you all to fail!!!!

[bjafnjasiopfj]

is that just a new name for the arura thats been out for years?

[bumcheek7]

@bobbyphx Again. Wasteful fucks.

[DarwinsFriend]

E.O.P (300 people get pink slips) End of story.

[jahseedbeatz504]

@ a4Audi2153..lol, the other comment was spot on..they knew it wouldn't be able to land...so ,...let's start a camp fire and throw all the tax payers hard earned money in w/ the marshmallows .. .. >: [

[d1973t]

what the point to this aircraft if it can only be used, when the weather permits its to fly. Don't the us miltary aready have the Aurora in area 51, since the early 1990's and that's hypersonic, so why would the us military be interested in this thing now.