US Air Force testflies new prototype hypersonic plane!! Wow

The US Air Force has test-flown a prototype hypersonic plane.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/842619c71b4c.jpg[/atsimg]

Launched last Thursday from California’s Vandenberg Airbase atop a Minotaur Lite booster rocket, the Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle travelled 65 hundred kilometres west at speeds of up to 21 thousand kilometres an hour. The experiment lasted 30 minutes, the closing 21 of them without communication with the vehicle. The latter finally splashed down into the Central Pacific Ocean.

The US Air Force hopes to develop a robotic hypersonic plane capable of travelling at over 20 times the speed of sound.

(that is just amazing in itself!!!)
Source: english.ruvr.ru...

I wonder if this is an upgrage from Aurora (noted in the ATS thread from 2004: www.abovetopsecret.com... I would think that the newest stuff is more updated but....

Edited to add new photo

[edit on 4/27/2010 by anon72]

21K KPH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Holy crap that's fast.

Guess we'll be seeing some cool new planes comming into military service.
And that shuttle replacement should be out soon.

just because the HTV-2 was named Falcon doesn't mean that it has anything to do with the F-16 Fighting Falcon featured in the OP.

a more interesting discussion can be found here

LOL

This article is messed up.

Ok it's talking about the Falcon hypersonic vehicle.

But your photo is of a F-16 fighting Falcon.

2 totally different aircraft.

Plz replace the photo. It's inaccurate.

Just letting you know. The photo is NOT the Falcon Hypersonic.

in this thread the OP contends that the launch was a missile, and then started this discussion stating that it is a plane. so which one is it really? a plane? or a missile?

[edit on 4.27.10 by toreishi]

reply to post by muzzleflash


This was the photo used in the article. I couldn't find any of what craft was used for the flight(s). I found one and a very nice member put some links up. I changed the OP. Sorry.



[edit on 4/27/2010 by anon72]

You know what this means. If we can put a nuke on this thing. we can hit any point on the planet in under an hour.

Scary.

reply to post by anon72


here are a couple of links

one

two

three (this article has a better pic for the OP)

four (see the Falcon CAV/HTV)

[edit on 4.27.10 by toreishi]

reply to post by anon72

It's been fixed (the photo). Remember, I just put what was in from the article. have mercy on my soul.... If you liked the story S&F )

Originally posted by grey580
You know what this means. If we can put a nuke on this thing. we can hit any point on the planet in under an hour.

Scary.

That's already possible with an ICBM. Problem is an ICBM launch with a conventional warhead is not conducive to good international relations with other nuclear states. Therefore a Prompt Global Strike hypersonic atmospheric vehicle is the best delivery system.

DARPA Loses Contact with Hypersonic Vehicle

WASHINGTON — A new U.S. launcher based on strategic missile hardware made its successful suborbital debut April 22, but the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) lost contact with the payload, an experimental hypersonic vehicle, soon thereafter, the agency said April 23.

DARPA’s Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle (HTV)-2 was the first in a series of flight experiments meant to demonstrate technologies that could be the foundation for the United States’ next long-range conventional missile. It was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., atop a Minotaur 4 rocket.

Built by Lockheed Martin Corp., the HTV-2 craft was supposed to glide over the Pacific Ocean at speeds exceeding 20,000 kilometers per hour for as long as 30 minutes, DARPA said in a press release. Nine minutes after launch, however, DARPA lost contact with the craft, and the cause of the failure is still unknown, the release said. There is one remaining HTV-2 craft.

Source

What I wondered (from the articles I read today April 28 2010) was if after they lost contact with the Hypersonic Glider, did they loose the Glider as well? I cant seem to find reference to its landing after they lost contact with it 9 minutes into its flight after being launched from the rocket, and most reference refer to what was supposed to happen instead of what did happen to it after the lost contact episode.

Does anyone have a link to the landing and retrieval information of this craft?
Did they loose it?

www.smh.com.au...

Smigs

[edit on 28/4/10 by Smiggle]

[edit on 28/4/10 by Smiggle]

Sad to see how many people think these things are new...they have had these and several like it for many years...technology they wanna use against us.

Originally posted by Smiggle
Does anyone have a link to the landing and retrieval information of this craft?
Did they loose it?

The HTV-2 was not intended to be retrieved, rather it was to make it to it's destination and fall harmlessly into the sea. All pertinent data was collected by remote and tracking.

so what happened to it??? did it go through someone's living room window or crash on a busy interstate or in the ocean...just curious

reply to post by PPGrocks

it went down harmlessly in the ocean.

reply to post by intelgurl


I posted this a couple days ago - I think this is what you are referring to.

www.abovetopsecret.com...