Falcon HTV-2: A hypersonic aircraft that can travel 20 times the speed of sound

Imagine a fully controllable flying object passing over your head at 20 times the speed of sound. That means - at the least, it will cover a whopping 20,000km in less than one hour, or in other words it can easily traverse between the US coasts within 13 minutes. Well, that is exactly what is being developed by The Pentagon and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA); a fully fledged Mach 20 aircraft christened the Falcon HTV-2, which can prove to be the key to a whole new evolutionary phase of super-weapons.

Falcon HTV-2

Beyond all the hullabaloo and gossip, this ambitious project has been going on for quite some time. As a matter of fact, a previous flight in last year's April lasted for 9 minutes, before the craft was deliberately taken down (read crashed) relating to ground safety and technical malfunctioning. This time, the Falcon HTV-2 will be launched into orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California by a rocket system. The rocket system itself is a decommissioned ballistic missile which would 'transport' the aircraft to the specified altitude in the upper space. From there, the Falcon is expected to break free and glide down to earth at an exhilarating velocity of 13,000mph (20,800 km per hr).

Falcon

The team behind the project has adopted more efficient guidelines for success of the second time space flight like changing of positional center of gravity, decreasing angle of descent and even keeping a second by second update of the fight pattern. Moreover, with additional data regarding aerodynamics and heat distribution from the first flight, things are poised to go smoothly this time. And, if the grand mission proves to be truly successful, then it will certainly be a world record for sub-orbital space travel. More importantly, it will have the potentiality to open new opportunities to hypersonic air traveling around the world.

Though, the US military perhaps does not share our fleeting optimism. According to them, this state-of-the-art capability will ensure their capacity to strike terrorist and rogue states within a limited time period. This mode is already touted as Conventional Prompt Global Strike, or CPGS, and lends credence to the super speed of the Falcon.

Via: DailyMail