[THS] US military testflies prototype hypersonic plane

[The Harder Stuff in news and commentary]

http://english.ruvr.ru/2010/04/26/6939457.html

who needs a pension or health care when your government has these?

US military testflies prototype hypersonic plane
Tag cloud: US, air defence , News, air show


Apr 26, 2010 21:00 Moscow Time
The US Air Force. © Flickr.com/UNC - CFC - USFK/cc-by
The US Air Force has test-flown a prototype hypersonic plane. Launched last
Thursday from California’s Vandenberg Airbase atop a Minotaur Lite booster rocket,
the Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle travelled 65 hundred kilometres west at
speeds of up to 21 thousand kilometres an hour. The experiment lasted 30 minutes,
the closing 21 of them without communication with the vehicle. The latter finally
splashed down into the Central Pacific Ocean.     The US Air Force hopes to develop a
robotic hypersonic plane capable of travelling at over 20 times the speed of sound.