Want to get a glimpse of what controlled flight at Mach 20 might look like? Watch this video.
The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has this week released this footage of its recent test flight of its HTV-2, which reaches a blinding speed of Mach 20.
This footage offers glimpse - admittedly a brief, grainy, hard to make out, from a distance glimpse, but a glimpse no less - of controlled Mach 20 flight of the unmanned hypersonic HTV-2 (Hypersonic Test Vehicle). According to DARPA, the HTV-2 sustained controlled Mach 20 flight for nearly three minutes before initiating an unanticipated, controlled descent into the Pacific Ocean. The HTV-2 first flew in April 2010 and DARPA is using the project to explore long-duration hypersonic flight.
In releasing this footage, DARPA Director Regina Dugan said it gives a, "a visceral feel for what it means to fly at Mach 20". In reality though, it's hard to make out much of anything from this footage, which is why DARPA has concurrently released an animated video offering a speed comparison between a subsonic Lockheed C-5 Galaxy flying at Mach 0.6, a supersonic F/-18 Hornet nipping along at Mach 1.5 and the hypersonic HTV-2 smashing them both at Mach 20. Watch the first video below, and then click here to watch the animated speed comparison - it'll knock your socks off.
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