from Hacker News

Military Aircraft Hit Mach 20 Before Ocean Crash, DARPA Says

by Shalle on 3/28/13, 11:31 AM with 81 comments

  • by 51Cards on 3/28/13, 1:13 PM

    August 18th, 2011? Possibly a few tests after this have already happened?

    Edit: Looks like no third flight yet. Found this followup: http://www.darpa.mil/threeColumn.aspx?pageid=2147485247

    Also found this paragraph to be interesting:

    “The initial shockwave 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,” said DARPA Acting Director, Kaigham J. Gabriel.

  • by Retric on 3/28/13, 1:47 PM

    Depending on what kind of impact angle they can achieve they may not need to add high explosives to this. Mach 20 is 400 times the kinetic energy of mach 1 and 40,000x the kinetic energy of a 76mph collision. So, even a 100lb craft = 1,000 times the impact energy of a 4,000lb truck at highway speeds.

  • by zeteo on 3/28/13, 1:10 PM

    >HTV-2 is part of an advanced weapons program called Conventional Prompt Global Strike, which is working to develop systems to reach an enemy target anywhere in the world within one hour

    They're getting really close. Mach 20 is about an hour and a half to the opposite point on Earth.

  • by jvzr on 3/28/13, 12:17 PM

    Recent follow-up to the parent's old article: http://www.space.com/15388-darpa-hypersonic-glider-demise-ex...

  • by cadetzero on 3/28/13, 2:26 PM

    I found it really interesting to read about the underlying tech, scramjets: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scramjet

  • by will_brown on 3/28/13, 5:16 PM

    I am almost positive I have video of this aircraft. I took night video (1/13/13) of an aircraft near the Everglades, the aircraft moves so fast it appears that I am moving, but I was stationary. When I get home I will upload the video and add a link here to see if people agree.

  • by colinshark on 3/28/13, 2:05 PM

    If the US is going to field these weapons, we need to be cool with Russia and China tossing around non-nuclear ICBMs- because that is what this is.

  • by ry0ohki on 3/28/13, 2:15 PM

    It did the equivalent of Boston to North Carolina in 3 minutes. Crazy testing something that covers so much distance so fast.

  • by will_brown on 3/28/13, 11:14 PM

    I commented earlier that I thought I recorded this aircraft at night on (1/13/13), people already bashed me saying this aircraft has only flown 2 times blah, blah, blah... (ever hear of military testing? They don't tell the public)

    Here is the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3VqiPhsnMM&feature=youtu...

    Why do I think it is same aircraft? When reading the OP article I immediately identified the artists night time rendering as the same aircraft I recorded in the video (video quality does not do it justice, but in person I can verify it looked identical to the artist rendering). Separately, the aircraft I recorded is by far the fastest thing I have ever seen, not in some UFO conspiracy way, but that I fly aircraft, attend airshows (F-14, F-15, F-16, F-18), saw Space Shuttles land (breaks sound barrier at low altitude) and I can saw I have never seen anything move as fast as the aircraft in my video.

  • by quarterto on 3/28/13, 1:07 PM

      Darpa Maintains Control of Unmaned Aircraft at Mach 20
    ...for three whole minutes!

  • by run4yourlives on 3/28/13, 4:52 PM

    Pretty sure this is 'old tech' because of the successful test of the Advanced Hypersonic Weapon.

    The Prompt Global Strike program seems to have moved on to other options.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prompt_Global_Strike

  • by axus on 3/28/13, 7:47 PM

    Watching that video feels like something out of Kerbel Space Program: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWBgUnL_ya4

  • by baby on 3/28/13, 3:58 PM

    mach 20 = 24 500.88 kmh (~6800m/s)

    This is incredibly fast. Distance New York to Paris : 5851km[1] it would take 14 minutes for this plane to do the distance.

    [1] http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=paris+to+new+york

  • by sabertoothed on 3/28/13, 1:03 PM

    Why does it not have a mane?

  • by tocomment on 3/28/13, 12:44 PM

    When is the next test?