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Originally posted by Coops1323
I'm sure many of you well find it as interesting as I did. I to thought it could be Aurora as well. But now I see that it isn't.[edit on 29-1-2009 by Coops1323]
Originally posted by DeltaNine
When you talk about the hallmarks of going black, what exactly are the signs?
One day Air Force pilots will blast off from US bases and reach their targets, flying six times the speed of sound. The Air Force just completing a successful test flight that can make this simulation a reality. It's an experimental plane using a new engine that not only burns its fuel but it blows itself up for greater propulsion.
NASA analyst, aviation consultant, Ken Christiansen my guest now.
Reporter (Bill): Ken, good morning.
Ken: Mornin' Bill
Bill: In english now, not in science talk,
Ken: (chuckles)
Bill: How does it work?
Ken: Very, very complicated. Ah, basically ah, as we transcended from one area to another, from jets to uh, scramjets and rockets, this is more of an explosion within the combustion chamber. A series of very small explosions or large explosions but pulse up to maybe a thousand a second and that will, just like the jetson cars that accelerated you would hear the pulsing umm..much like that.
Bill: Check that out. You see that go off the runway?
Lady in background: hmph
Bill: It was gone. What would this do for aviation, Ken? If we can do it succesfully?
Ken: I think as you go through the uh different technologies, what what really, this is gonna be an enabler to go in the Mach V to Mach X regime
Bill: Which is how fast?
Ken: Ah, very fast.
Bill: That three thousand miles an hour, what is that?
Ken: About three thousand um, you're talking about 2300 miles at Mach 3, so, just under, just under 10,000, within that range.
Bill: So you can take off, you can take off from a runway -- let me be sure I get this right -- fly it at six times the speed of sound and then come back home again?
Ken: Yes, much like the shuttle. The shuttle goes up and comes back as an orbiter. This vehicle would actually be able to take off from a runway or maybe uh a modified launch pad and then return like an aircraft.
Bill: How, how does a human being stand that ...at six times the speed of sound? What, what, what would that feel like?
Ken: It's, it'll be gradual. A human can't that immediate uh, acceleration, so much like the space shuttle, the existing space shuttle, the accelerate from, or they leave the pad at zero and then go up to 17,500 miles an hour to reach orbital velocity. To go into uh, into space, but that's a gradual. In the shuttle's situation it takes about 9, 9 and a half minutes to uh to accelerate to that speed.
Bill: You need the, the equipment to be able to stand it too. How, if if it could be done, what would it cost?
Ken: Uh, that's TBD at this point. The monies that I uh read about on the, when I researched this item, um, it's it's in the millions but this will clearly go into the billions as this, as this is developed. Air Force has been doing it. Darpa's been doing it. Um NASA, uh Dryden Flight Research Center in the uh, does it.
Bill: Yeah uh everyone does it yeah. Wonder what Wilbur and Orville are thinking about this right now. (laughs) uh huh, cool.
Lady in background: (laughs)
Bill: Thank you, Ken. Ken Christiansen. The future, someday.
Ken: You're welcome, Bill
Lady in background: 10,000 miles an hour
Bill: (whistles)
Lady: That's NY to LA in 20 minutes (snaps her fingers). How'd you like that? I'm in.
Bill: I like it!
Lady: Even me. Even I'd get on that flight.
Originally posted by Darkpr0
Does the USAF intend this to be a UAV/UCAV or will it be manned?
Originally posted by bdn12
...Not everything that the US builds has to be sold to foreign countries.
Just what happened in February 1996 when a Chinese rocket exploded when it was about to launch an American sat? And in that aftermath, did Loral Space Systems, the satellite's builder, pass on secrets to the Chinese government? If so, why should we care?
So far, everything the committee has been told has come via classified, secure briefings.