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U.S. Military Plane Can Fly London-Sydney In Less Than Hour

Posted by majestic on August 11, 2011

Speed_is_Life_HTV-2_Reentry_New

Hypersonic Technology Vehicle HTV-2 reentry (artist's impression)

Wow – so once this thing goes commercial you’ll only spend 5 hours having your “junk” scanned and probed at the airport and less than an hour in the air. Report from the Guardian:

By the time you finish reading this sentence, the Falcon HTV-2, the fastest plane ever built, could have flown 18 miles. It would get from London to Sydney in less than an hour, while withstanding temperatures of almost 2,000C, hotter than the melting point of steel.

At 3pm BST on Thursday , the US Defence Advance Research Projects Agency will launch the Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 on the back of a rocket from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. If all goes to plan, engineers will launch the Falcon HTV-2 to the edge of space, before detaching the plane and guiding it on a hypersonic flight that will reach speeds of 13,000mph (about 20 times the speed of sound) on its return to Earth.

The Falcon started life in 2003, part of a US military research project to build a plane that could reach (and potentially deliver bombs to) any part of the world in less than an hour.

The plane has been tested in computer models and wind tunnels, but they can only simulate speeds up to Mach 15 (11,400mph). A real test is the only way to determine if the plane will remain flying at high speeds.

Thursday’s flight will also test the carbon composite materials designed to withstand the extreme temperatures the plane will experience on its skin and also the navigation systems that will control its trajectory as it moves at almost four miles per second…

[continues in the Guardian]

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  • http://buzzcoastin.posterous.com BuzzCoastin

    Wow, that was money well spent by the Pentagon; now the US can get to the camel jockeys in Afghanistan (who are kicking their asses) in just a few minutes. Super kewl Big Brother.

  • http://buzzcoastin.posterous.com BuzzCoastin

    Wow, that was money well spent by the Pentagon; now the US can get to the camel jockeys in Afghanistan (who are kicking their asses) in just a few minutes. Super kewl Big Brother.

  • DeepCough

    ‘Bout time they brought back the Concorde.

  • BuzzCoastinYouSuck

    that’s obviously not what they’ll be using it for you fool.

  • BuzzCoastinYouSuck

    that’s obviously not what they’ll be using it for you fool.

  • medicine ball

    um hes obviously joking you tool

  • im so sick of these snakes

    more like alien technology that has spooked dweebs for centuries finally revealed to divert attention from some bullshit that is about to go down.

  • Wanooski

    Great, now the state has even more unreasonable power, yeee haaaaw!

  • Markov Cheney

    your mom is alien technology

  • im so sick of these snakes

    They lost contact with it soon after deployment. Now Its just an UFO again

  • timid teriyaki

    “and potentially deliver bombs”

    why is it that all of these new technologies are used for destruction and death? this world makes me sick and i am not happy to share a planet with people that have goals like this.

  • timid teriyaki

    “and potentially deliver bombs”

    why is it that all of these new technologies are used for destruction and death? this world makes me sick and i am not happy to share a planet with people that have goals like this.

  • Hadrian999

    it’s really the only application for such a craft. the truth is technology is driven by war

  • Wanooski

    Pretty much, it’s all about mindless competition and the constant threat of the imperialism of neighboring civilizations(which are imperialistic because they are unsustainable and therefore require constant expansion). It has more or less driven the majority of technological development, which is why most tech is so destructive or at the very least so capable of use in destructive applications.

  • Wanooski

    UPDATE: Contact with the vehicle was lost.
    Obviously it went back in time.

  • Wanooski

    UPDATE: Contact with the vehicle was lost.
    Obviously it went back in time.

  • Wanooski

    UPDATE: Contact with the vehicle was lost.
    Obviously it went back in time.

  • red

    maybe this is the military’s pitiful attempt to 1. intimidate the world, and 2. show off a glimpse of their hidden technology so that foreign investors will take note.  meanwhile, all everyone concludes is of how horribly sad this is. americans are suffering, and this is what they get: newer faster war machines.  O’bomba is a creep.

  • Holy fucking ghost

    Meh i think this for transport.they already have lasers I dont know why they dont use them, maybe because people would go into panic mode as they fear would happens if aliens make contact 

  • Guest

    you said it.. here in memphis, ufos of all kinds are becoming a permanent fixture in the sky.. cigar shaped ones with a stripe, triangle ones like pictured above (notice the “head light” on it, it glows white light and the other two corners are red blinking), a solid black blob that rotates and hovers, objects ascending completely vertically into the sky above the clouds out of sight, and last but not least, the cylinder shaped (like a soda can, but longer) ones that have a floodlight and red/green light, sound like a Harley Davidson with dual exhaust, and have flown right over us no more than 20ft away with no wind coming from it… also if the military has that plane, why is the photo an “artist’s depiction?”  it’s a total distraction… go outside and look up for about 15 minutes.. seriously.  I’m willing to wager where ever you are, you will see these if you want to see them.  

  • Hadrian999

    transport of what? yes laser weapons do exist but the ones that have been built(that we know about) are generally not usable in a tactical way due to size and power requirements do have lasers , i don’t see this thing becoming the weapon from “real genius”

  • http://voxmagi-necessarywords.blogspot.com/ VoxMagi

    Now we get lost and lose contact faster than ever before imagined!!!

  • Hadrian999

    yeah, read the report on that, seems like they figured everything out except how to control it lol, it’s the 2nd time it has happened, don’t even want to know how much it has cost us

  • http://buzzcoastin.posterous.com BuzzCoastin

    the Falcon’s test flight ended prematurely and it plunged into the
    Pacific Ocean. It was the second and last scheduled flight for the
    Falcon program, which began in 2003 and cost taxpayers about $320
    million. Both flights failed to go the distance. . .

  • http://buzzcoastin.posterous.com BuzzCoastin

    the Falcon’s test flight ended prematurely and it plunged into the
    Pacific Ocean. It was the second and last scheduled flight for the
    Falcon program, which began in 2003 and cost taxpayers about $320
    million. Both flights failed to go the distance. . .

  • http://buzzcoastin.posterous.com BuzzCoastin

    the Falcon’s test flight ended prematurely and it plunged into the
    Pacific Ocean. It was the second and last scheduled flight for the
    Falcon program, which began in 2003 and cost taxpayers about $320
    million. Both flights failed to go the distance. . .