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Hypersonic Test Aircraft Peeled Apart After 3 Minutes of Sustained Mach 20 Speed
coondoggie writes "DARPA's experimental Hypersonic Technology Vehicle (HTV-2), lost significant portions of its outer skin and became uncontrollable after three minutes of sustained Mach 20 speed last August. That was the conclusion of an independent engineering review board investigating the cause of what DARPA calls a 'flight anomaly' in the second test flight of the HTV-2. Quoting the report: 'The resulting gaps created strong, impulsive shock waves around the vehicle as it traveled nearly 13,000 miles per hour, causing the vehicle to roll abruptly. Based on knowledge gained from the first flight in 2010 and incorporated into the second flight, the vehicle's aerodynamic stability allowed it to right itself successfully after several shockwave-induced rolls. Eventually, however, the severity of the continued disturbances finally exceeded the vehicle's ability to recover.'"
Right. Glad you grasped the point of the project so well, and didn't try to wedge in some off-topic nonsense.
They only need to achieve 39 more minutes of flight time and they'll match the range of a 787!
... get one's velocity going so fast one's skin gets ripped off...
James Han and Leigh Whannell are probably working on the plot right now...
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
When you say the fuel source doesn't matter, are you referrring to sustaining speeds of Mach 20, or to the plane's Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly feature?
Fortunately, we'll have disposable people riding in it.
How can we continue to believe in a just universe and freedom to eat crackers if we have no ale?
If advanced planes work perfectly, we will never get a Bionic Man.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
640mi (in 3 min) should be enough for anyone.
So just slow it to Mach 19.7.
make imaginary.friends COUNT=100 VISIBLE=false
And scientifically, it went around 750 miles in 3 minutes. In an atmosphere. That's a pretty damn awesome piece of engineering.
Meteors do that every day. And, they have the same end result.
Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
What I really want is a bicycle powered, mach 20 vehicle. And a unicorn. And some waffles.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
You run Linux regularly? You either are: a central processing unit, a graphics processing unit operating outside of its designed architecture, or making shit up. Who thinks this stuff up?
your thin skin doesn't make me a troll
Fortunately, we'll have disposable people riding in it.
Finally, a use for Intellectual Property Lawyers!