Falcon HTV-2 is lost during bid to become fastest ever plane

US military loses contact after 36 minutes with rocket-launched carbon fibre spaceplane designed to fly at 13,000 mph

Is the fastest plane ever been manufactured, where the speed of about 20,000 kilometers per hour (20 times the speed of sound), and the U.S. military had launched last Thursday in a test flight before it lost contact over the Pacific!

The aircraft name of the Falcon HTV-2, which is part of a project to provide the United States the ability to strike quickly and decisively anywhere in the world, and through the development of a new generation of weapons capable of reaching anywhere in the world during a very short period, where can these plane (when completed) to reach any place in the world in 60 minutes!



The length of the test model 3 ‪. ‬ 6 meters and weighs 900 kg, were made of special materials withstand temperatures up to 2,000 degrees Celsius. The plane could theoretically carry any weapons owned by the people now, including a nuclear bomb.


The plane was launched on a rocket from the Vandenberg base for the Air Force in California, and was supposed to take the rocket to the edge of our atmosphere, starting from the top, but the control center lost contact with them at this stage, and is believed to have crashed somewhere in the Pacific!




This video shows what it was supposed to happen in this test flight:



he Falcon HTV-2 was launched aboard a rocket from Vandenberg air force base in California, on what at first appeared to be a flawless mission.

But after separating from the rocket at the edge of space and beginning its return to Earth, the aircraft went silent during the Gliding stage of the test flight, when it was due to perform a series of maneuvers as it Hurtled through the atmosphere.

Officials at the US Defence Advance Research Projects Agency (Darpa) announced they had lost communication with the speeding craft at 4.21pm BST, 36 minutes into the flight.

The unmanned "hypersonic technology flight" had been expected to reach a top speed of Mach 20, or 13,000 mph, and withstand temperatures of 2,000 C 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.


The plane was born from a Darpa plan called Prompt Global Strike, which sought to give military commanders the ability to strike targets anywhere in the world within an hour. Had the project worked, the Falcon HTV might have replaced intercontinental ballistic missiles.

The loss of the hypersonic aircraft is a serious setback for engineers trying to perfect the art of flying at such spectacular speeds.

In April last year, the first Falcon test flight, HTV-1, ran into trouble after nine minutes when computers picked up a glitch and steered the aircraft into the sea as a safety precaution.

Darpa only built two Falcon prototypes and has no plans to manufacture any more. This test flight was their last shot at success before the project is considered for closure.

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.

Engineers had hoped the flight would provide crucial information on the plane's performance, including the resilience of its carbon composite body and navigation systems supposed to keep it on course as it moved at almost four miles per second.

( source )

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