DARPA Loses Contact with Mach 20 “Hypersonic Glider” During Test Flight

[n2doc]

It was a big week for experimental military aircraft, with the Air Force’s secretive X-37B space plane and the Navy’s biofuel-powered “Green Hornet” both achieving successful test flights. But the most ambitious—the HTV-2 hypersonic glider under development by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)—lost contact with its operators during its run.

Launched from Vandenberg AFB, Calif. on April 22, the unmanned HTV-2 was planned to cross the Pacific and impact the ocean north of Kwajalein Atoll in the first of two flights to demonstrate technology for a prompt global strike weapon . It successfully achieved separation from its booster rocket high in the atmosphere; however, nine minutes into the test the glider lost communication. Now the military is studying the test flight telemetry to figure out where the HTV-2 would have crashed down.

Thursday’s mission was the first of two planned in the HTV-2 program, which uses Minotaur 4 boosters developed by Orbital Sciences Corp. from decommissioned Peacekeeper intercontinental ballistic missiles. The U.S. military is trying to develop technology to respond to threats around the globe at speeds of Mach 20 or greater, according to DARPA . DARPA is being fairly tight-lipped about possible uses for the HTV-2, but it’s not hard to see why the military would be excited about an aircraft that travels about 13,000 miles per hour and can strike on the other side of the world with “little or no advanced warning,” as the agency says.

Program manager Paul Erbland says the key to HTV-2 flying at such speed and height is its carbon shell, which is capable of withstanding extreme heat and pressure. It doesn’t burn off material to get rid of heat. The vehicle is designed to fly at a low angle of attack relative to other hypersonic vehicles. “Shuttle and similar vehicles fly at roughly 40°; HTV-2 is substantially below that,” he said . As for the communications failure, DARPA has some time to address the problem before the craft’s second planned test flight next March.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2010/04/27/darpa-loses-contact-with-mach-20-hypersonic-glider-during-test-flight/

[saigon68]

1. Good thing there's no Poverty in amerika

And that ALL seniors have excellent health care.

[Sal Minella]

2. And that overpaid engineers will have job security for months

while figuring out what mistakes they made with this ghastly, murderous, testosterone-driven toy.

I just hate to see a glitch in anything that could be so successful in further destabilizing the global political situation. /sarcasm.

[Igel]

7. I whole heartedly agree.

I'm still lamenting that they learned to refine iron before they eliminated poverty.

Or that printing was invented while there was poverty to be fought.

[Joe Chi Minh]

8. Ned Ludd was great man. Some of the monied folk are beginning to learn that he had a point.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

11. Well, then get away from that evil computer. Smash it.

It ruined the poor abacus-making artisans.

[newfie11]

3. great toy, but we must cut medicare and ss,

don't we have enough war toys.

[FiveGoodMen]

4. Let's hope it crashed in the ocean somewhere.

[Ready4Change]

5. That was always the plan.

Like the X-43, there doesn't appear to have been any intent of recovering the vehicle. Fly it, then drop in it deep water.

It's not a practice I like, but it seems to be a pattern with these vehicles. I think it's a relic of the 'cheaper, faster' research mindset, which I think is leading to a mistaken impression that failures, such as this, are acceptable.

If, on the other hand, we spent more time/effort/money on planning for a recovery, I think not only might we have an example of a flown vehicle to examine after wards, but that we might have an increased chance of a successful flight, because more was at stake. (Examine the difference in quality between, say, disposable and non-disposable pens.)

[FiveGoodMen]

6. Yeah, I got that.

But the plan didn't involve losing contact, so I'm hoping that the part of the plan where it didn't crash in a populated area still worked out okay.

[Ready4Change]

9. If this were a Bond movie

It would have been taken over electronically and guided to a villains secret lair.

Any volcanoes in the area? :)

[Nihil]

10. Hmmm ...

> the unmanned HTV-2 was planned to cross the Pacific and impact the
> ocean north of Kwajalein Atoll
+
> The vehicle is designed to fly at a low angle of attack relative to
> other hypersonic vehicles. “Shuttle and similar vehicles fly at
> roughly 40°; HTV-2 is substantially below that,”

Why do I have this vision of a $150M skipping stone ...?

:evilgrin:

[Ready4Change]

12. Heheh!

A stones first skip is usually huge. Maybe it'll hop right over Russia and skip somewhere in the EU, then pitter pat across the Atlantic. Time to search our Atlantic coastline!