Oh brother.
US military officials have lost contact with the fastest plane ever built during a hypersonic test flight over the Pacific on Thursday.[...]
The unmanned "hypersonic technology flight" had been expected to reach a top speed of Mach 20, or 13,000 mph, and withstand temperatures of 2,000C caused by the ultrafast flow of air around the aircraft.
At that speed, the plane could travel from London to Sydney in less than an hour and cross the US mainland, from New York to Los Angeles, in 12 minutes.
[...]
Had the latest test flight gone to plan, the Falcon HTV-2 would have separated from its rocket high above the atmosphere and entered a steep dive before levelling out and performing a series of subtle manoeuvres to test its aerodynamic performance. At the end of the flight the plane would have rolled upside down and steered a graceful arc into the ocean.
Yeah, well, the best laid plans…and we’re talking the US military here; plans aren’t always well laid.
Either somebody is going to get a big surprise when the thing lands (as TPM's headline reads, "Duck!"), or maybe it’s been hacked and is already in a secret hangar in Russia.
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