DARPA is preparing to launch its second Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle from Vandenberg today:
DARPA’s Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 (HTV-2) program is a multiyear research and development effort to increase the technical knowledge base and advance critical technologies to make long-duration hypersonic flight a reality.
Data from the program informs policy, acquisition, and operations decisions for future Department of Defense Conventional Prompt Global Strike programs. Hypersonic data is collected through extensive modeling and simulation, wind-tunnel testing and two experimental flight tests. The ultimate goal is a capability that can reach anywhere in the world in less than an hour.
Falcon HTV-2 is an unmanned, rocket-launched, maneuverable aircraft that glides through the Earth’s atmosphere at incredibly fast speeds—Mach 20 (approximately 13,000 miles per hour). At HTV-2 speeds, flight time between New York City and Los Angeles would be less than 12 minutes. The HTV-2 vehicle is a “data truck” with numerous sensors that collect data in an uncertain operating envelope.
I don’t know that there’s any passenger carrying potential in the model, but the kinetics of a Mach 20 impact on a well-bunkered target would be a pretty interesting test of the old “irresistible force/immovable object” conundrum.
Test profile video here.
Gentlemen, start your engines. What a ride that would be!
Did you see the remarks for that video? The trolls are hard at work.
FedEx and UPS are interested – express service to Shanghai, 1 hr, 10 min. Nothing fragile please.
Lex, does this mean the new job is on hold, pending another interview?
@DARPA on Twitter says that Range assets lost telemetry at 11:21, 30 minutes after the unit went into the glide trajectory. Could have splashed down or went somewhere that it wasn’t intended to go.
30 minutes? No, sounds like a successful test. This unit was not recoverable.
Apparently not successful.
When it comes to this sort of thing, I’m reminded of a comment that Dr. Theodore von Karmann had to a young test engineer who was boasting of having six successful missile tests in a row.
“You’re not being aggressive enough.”
+10
Here’s a graphic of the flight overview: http://www.darpa.mil/Flight%20Overview%20slide–UPDATED%20as%20of%2029%20Jul%2011.html
Last Tweet from @DARPA was 40 minutes ago: “Downrange assets did not re-acquire tracking or telemetry. HTV-2 has an autonomous flight termination capability.” It was configured to splash down at the end of it’s flight.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — An unmanned hypersonic glider developed for U.S. defense research into super-fast global strike capability was launched atop a rocket early Thursday but contact was lost after the experimental craft began flying on its own, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency said.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_HYPERSONIC_GLIDER?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-08-11-12-46-49
Looking at the video, it appears control in the upper atmosphere is maintained by the use of thrusters rather than variable control surfaces. Once the craft hits subsonic at lower altitudes, I would assume that control surfaces would be used. Is that a good guess?
The LA Times says it was lost:
Test of hypersonic aircraft fails over Pacific Ocean
The LA Timies says the craft was lost:
Test of hypersonic aircraft fails over Pacific Ocean
Sorry for the double post… my connection seems to be iffy today.
Lost at Sea? Does the PLAN have their version of the Glomar Explorer they’ve been building cranked up yet?
You would think that being 2011 they would have built in a pinger like our pilots wear when they bail…but times are tough I guess.
“Here’s what we know,” said Air Force Maj. Chris Schulz, DARPA HTV-2 program manager and PhD in aerospace engineering. “We know how to boost the aircraft to near space. We know how to insert the aircraft into atmospheric hypersonic flight. We do not yet know how to achieve the desired control during the aerodynamic phase of flight. It’s vexing; I’m confident there is a solution. We have to find it.”
http://www.darpa.mil/NewsEvents/Releases/2011/2011/08/11DARPA_HYPERSONIC_VEHICLE_ADVANCES_TECHNICAL_KNOWLEDGE.aspx
It disappeared into the multiverse.
We’ve just accelerated military technology in another universe.
What’s a few million … A drop in the bucket (or Pacific Ocean;depends how you look at it).
DARPA Loses Hypersonic Vehicle, Goes From $320M to Zero in 2,700 Seconds
“It is a marvelous research and development exercise, we’ve learned a lot about hypersonic speeds, et cetera. But I just don’t see the practicality in it,” a Vandenberg Air Force Base spokesman said.
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/08/11/darpa-readies-hypersonic-aircraft-for-mach-20-launch-test/
Lex’s idea about a Mach-20 kinetic kill vehicle: excellent. G-man’s suggestion: even better, at least in terms of getting private enterprise involved. G. Harry Stine used to tout sub-orbital hops for a similar purpose.
BTW, is it just me, or did that vehicle look very much like the ship from the original Planet of the Apes?