Topic: Falcon HVT-2 - Second Test Flight

[Libertas]

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/this-is-the-hypersonic-test-plane-that-travels-13000-miles-an-hour/



Pretty cool!

Or, as my 12 year old nephew would say in current lingo..."that's sick"!

"As for the endgame of this hyper-fast aircraft testing, the U.S. military hopes with this technology it could one day strike anywhere in the world in less than 1 hour."

May I suggest targets in Iran when she goes on her first operational mission?!

 

[Libertas]

Lost contact with the plane shortly after it detatched from rocket and went to own power...

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/update-defense-company-loses-contact-with-hypersonic-jet/

Uhh, where the heck did it go?  Anybody see it re-enter the atmosphere?

Maybe it's so fast it vaporized itself!

 

[charlesoakwood]

Radio said it flew for nine minutes before they lost it.  That's the same amount of time it flew last time,
before they lost it.  That baby's got work to do, they need to have it fixed by March, 2013.

[rickl]

They might try looking for it near Reno, Nevada.

[trapeze]

Article I read somewhere on this subject today said that today's test was a make or break for the program. If that's true then this one is history.

[rickl]

Even if this particular program is cancelled, hopefully they were able to learn enough from the two flights to put that knowledge to use in future projects.

[benb61]

"As for the endgame of this hyper-fast aircraft testing, the U.S. military hopes with this technology it could one day strike anywhere in the world in less than 1 hour."

Don't we already have ballistic missles to do that in 15 to 25 minutes?  Just remove the nuclear warhead and install a conventional one.

This is just a re-entry vehicle, there are no engines or propulsion of any kind except a reaction control system (RCS) to steer it.  It requires a rocket to launch it.

[Libertas]

Ah ha, now the news comes out.

On Friday, DARPA said in a statement that the searing high speeds caused portions of the Falcon’s skin to peel from the aerostructure. The resulting gaps created strong shock waves around the vehicle as it traveled nearly 13,000 mph, causing it to roll abruptly.

The Falcon, which is built by Lockheed Martin Corp., is made of durable carbon composite material, which was expected to keep the aircraft's crucial internal electronics and avionics -- only a few inches away from the surface -- safe from the fiery hypersonic flight. Surface temperatures on the Falcon were expected to reach more than 3,500 degrees, hot enough to melt steel.

“The initial shock wave disturbances experienced during second flight, from which the vehicle was able to recover and continue controlled flight, exceeded by more than 100 times what the vehicle was designed to withstand,” DARPA Acting Director Kaigham J. Gabriel said in a statement. “That’s a major validation that we’re advancing our understanding of aerodynamic control for hypersonic flight.”


http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-darpa-hypersonic-missile-20120420,0,4564567.story

Video clip at end is pretty cool, and watch towards the end it becomes visible again.

Doesn't appear to be the disaster people thought, trying to make something aerodynamic and manueverable at those speeds and temperatures has to be a challenge, it's a little more than just a ballistic entity.

[charlesoakwood]

Yes, armed test flights should be conducted over Iran.

[Alphabet Soup]

Didn't anyone tell them that you should never go that fast without first engaging your force-field.