Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: MarineUS on August 11, 2011, 05:10:42 AM
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/10/us-military-fastest-plane-falcon
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.
The design and flight pattern of the plane has been tweaked since an aborted test flight in April last year. Nine minutes into that mission, which succeeded in flying for 139 seconds at Mach 22 (16,700mph), the onboard computer detected an anomaly and ordered the plane to ditch into the ocean for safety reasons.
Unlike most other rocket launches, this one will not be shown live online, though it will be possible to follow the plane's progress via tweets from @DARPA_News.
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Thoughts?
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If it works they should put a chimp in it :D
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Our enemies beter get used to one hour cat naps.
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Madness. :aok
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interesting. it reminds me of an arrowhead. if they can make it work for good i feel bad for our enemies. :rock
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They've lost "contact" with this one too.
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They've lost "contact" with this one too.
:noid
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yeah he's the story from the NZ Herald
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/technology/news/article.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10744543
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any idea how they "Communicate" with it? GPS or soemthing?
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any idea how they "Communicate" with it? GPS or soemthing?
last I checked radio signals travelled much faster than mach 20 :P
..and yeah, they lost contact with this one too. They seem to be running into a lot of the same issues as when breaking the sound barrier eh?
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http://www.darpa.mil/NewsEvents/Releases/2011/2011/08/11DARPA_HYPERSONIC_VEHICLE_ADVANCES_TECHNICAL_KNOWLEDGE.aspx
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To lose contact in such totality I'd think the vehicle was destroyed.
Vaporized.
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To lose contact in such totality I'd think the vehicle was destroyed.
Vaporized.
No No No, a portal opened to another realm.
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No No No, a portal opened to another realm.
:rofl :rofl
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The first test vehicle contact was lost and it went into an automatic controlled descent on its own and landed in the ocean for pickup. I bet this one did the same thing...or it just 'sploded somewhere and tiny bits of foil are hitting people in the head.
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The first test vehicle contact was lost and it went into an automatic controlled descent on its own and landed in the ocean for pickup. I bet this one did the same thing...or it just 'sploded somewhere and tiny bits of foil are hitting people in the head.
Or its going back in time and at the sheer speed it's traveling, it hits the ground and kills all the dinosaurs 65 million years ago! :noid :bolt:
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I don’t know what happened but they deal with a possible issue with the space shuttle. As the shuttle comes in the intense heat that creates a plasma shield that has a perfect 100% radio wave absorbtion. They can see the shuttle but for a couple minutes they cannot communicate with it. I'm pretty sure they never fixed it. Maybe this played into it.
Boo
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I don’t know what happened but they deal with a possible issue with the space shuttle. As the shuttle comes in the intense heat that creates a plasma shield that has a perfect 100% radio wave absorbtion. They can see the shuttle but for a couple minutes they cannot communicate with it. I'm pretty sure they never fixed it. Maybe this played into it.
Boo
saying it went out of earthes orbit then re-entered but never fully "entered"? :headscratch:
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We're going to NASA to run some more cars next week so I will try to ask them.
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Sounds good but how long does it take to climb on the back of another aircraft to get high enough to use it, as i guess its more like London to Sydney in 10 hours + as it only fast coming straight down so its more like a fast rock.
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Great!!!!
Maybe, given the state of the US economy you should look at cost cutting measures and get the Chinese to build it.
Just a thought
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+1 We are getting a lot closer to building planetary transports. Now let us hope that this cat doesn't interrupt when we start venturing into space more!!!!
(http://www.prguitarman.com/comics/poptart1red1.gif)
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Not rentry. Intense heat caused by friction creates the plasma field. Ground control lost ability to communicate with plane? Just speculating based on space shuttle experience.
Boo
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Great!!!!
Maybe, given the state of the US economy you should look at cost cutting measures and get the Chinese to build it.
Just a thought
Well it does not cut cost. Once the product get state side it has to pretty much be rebuilt to correct it. China is still a joke in quality or capability when it comes to construction / fabrication.
They can make toys and bowls as long as you check them for contaminants.
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The test seems to have gone rather, um, well...?
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2011/08/vandenberg-launch-hypersonic-vehicle-fails.html
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Pics or it didn't happen. Seriously though, where are the pics for this thing?
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It just discoed.
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It just discoed.
:rofl Must run on Win7 64 bit!
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saying it went out of earthes orbit then re-entered but never fully "entered"? :headscratch:
No, the heat and preasure turn the surounding air into Plasma, which is just electrons that have been striped from their atoms. The plasma absorbs all radio (and possibly radar, I'm not sure on this) waves, which causes them to loose contact.
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To quote a 2 year old Peter Lawrance (B6Pacman aka Me :D)
"Broken......"
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No, the heat and preasure turn the surounding air into Plasma, which is just electrons that have been striped from their atoms. The plasma absorbs all radio (and possibly radar, I'm not sure on this) waves, which causes them to loose contact.
didnt know this.
my EMT class had me thinking the plasma in our blood for a second...then i was thinking "wait... thats water and proteins in the basic form :headscratch:" :rofl
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No No No, a portal opened to another realm.
wheres the wormhole to farscape? :noid
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It's completely frelled!
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It went plaid :rofl!
(http://rubystuff.org/ludicrous/plaid.jpg)