Video of hypersonic glider released
You might remember the story about the experimental, hypersonic aircraft that could fly from Sydney to London in 49 minutes.
The unmanned Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle (HTV-2), designed as a global bomber prototype capable of a mind-boggling 20 times the speed of sound, launched successfully on 11 August 2011 from California aboard a Minotaur IV rocket, according to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
After the launch, the Falcon was supposed to dislodge from the rocket, speed back towards earth, level out and glide above the Pacific at 20 times the speed of sound.
However after the plane separated from the rocket in the upper reaches of the atmosphere for its "glide" phase, contact was lost somewhere in the Pacific, DARPA said.
The US defense research agency have now issued a release saying the flight wasn't a complete failure. More than 20 air, land, sea and space data collection systems were operational.
"Scientists believe that very high-quality data collected from the combined test range assets will aid our further understanding of this unique flight environment," DARPA said.
The US defense research agency also released footage of the glider to show just how fast 20,000km/h looks.
"The footage released today shows how rapidly a vehicle can travel from horizon to horizon at Mach 20."
The video was "captured from a hand-held camera operated by a crew member aboard the Pacific Tracker — the first sea-borne telemetry collection asset able to visually monitor" the aircraft in its test flight.
They're also released an animation, showing the difference in speed between a subsonic C-5 Galaxy, supersonic F/-18 Hornet and its hypersonic HTV-2, flying at Mach 20.
The intention of the hypersonic plane is to potentially provide the US military with a platform for striking targets anywhere on the planet within minutes using conventional weapons.
Such a weapon is part of what the US Air Force has dubbed "prompt global strike" capability.
"The ultimate goal is a capability that can reach anywhere in the world in less than an hour," DARPA said on its website.
In theory, the Falcon could travel between New York City and Los Angeles in less than 12 minutes.
The August test was the second and last scheduled flight for the program, which began in 2003 and cost taxpayers about $320 million. Both flights failed to go the distance.
