An unmanned hypersonic glider likely aborted its 13,000 mph flight over the Pacific Ocean last summer because unexpectedly large sections of its skin peeled off, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency said Friday. Read more
The US military lost contact with an unmanned hypersonic test aircraft shortly after its launch, defence officials have said. The Falcon Hypersonic Test Vehicle 2 (HTV-2) - capable of reaching any target in the world in less than an hour - began a test flight from atop a rocket on Thursday. Contact was also lost with a similar craft during the first mission. Read more
The U.S. Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency says contact with its experimental hypersonic glider was lost after launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base on the central California coast. The agency says in Twitter postings that its unmanned Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle-2 was launched Thursday atop a rocket, successfully separated from the booster and entered the mission's glide phase. The agency says telemetry was subsequently lost, but released no details. Read more
DARPA will launch the second flight test of an unmanned hypersonic glider Thursday (Aug. 11) to test technologies needed for a new global strike bomber concept designed to fly 20 times the speed of sound. The ultra-fast vehicle, called the Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2, is slated to launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California atop a Minotaur 4 rocket after a one-day delay due to bad weather. Liftoff is set for sometime between 7 a.m. and 1 p.m. PDT (10 a.m to 4 p.m. EDT). Source