Researchers at U.S. Air Force are building
Hypersonic aircraft which can go 5 times the
speed of sound
The United Air Force researchers are aiming to build
Hypersonic aircrafts which would travel at Mach 5 (i.e.
go five times the speed of sound) by 2023. The existence
of Hypersonic weapons would definitely transform the
essence of modern warfare.
Basically, an aircraft would be considered hypersonic in
case if it travels at about a speed of 3,800 miles per
hour which is equivalent to five times the speed of sound
and generally referred to as ‘Mach 5′.
An aircraft which can manage to run at this speed will
be unsafe for travelling of human passengers; however,
it can travel across the entire breadth of United States
in a time span of half an hour.
Last week, U.S. Air Force team announced the target
date for their new aircraft to be 2023. While speaking to
CNN on Thursday in regards to this new weapon,
outgoing Air Force chief scientist Mica Endsley, said:
“The key thing is, hypersonics go really fast.”
Endsley added that besides U.S. Air Force, other
countries like China and Russia too are working towards
building and testing their hypersonic aircrafts.
Air Force Maj. Gen. Thomas Masiello believes that
hypersonic technology is a potential “game changer” and
it would definitely transform the way modern warfare is
fought. He mentioned this in a conference held last year.
Why is Hypersonic technology or weapon or aircraft so
important!!
It is of very much significance because the hypersonic
weapons can be launched from much longer distances
and these weapons travel at a speed which is virtually
not visible till it reaches the target. In other words, these
weapons will allow the air force to strike their targets
quickly.
It is almost a decade that the Pentagon researchers are
working to build an unmanned hypersonic weapon.
Pentagon revealed their $300 military project in the year
2004. The very first test of this project took place in the
year 2009 when researchers conducted various tests;
however all of them failed.
Then in May 2013, U.S. Air Force research team
conducted their fourth test using the hypersonic aircraft
that was named X-51A Waverider . During this test the
Waverider was able to reach a speed of Mach 5, however
it crashed into the Pacific Ocean, though this was
expected by the research team.
Building hypersonic weapon is not an easy task and
engineers need to develop new guidance systems and
materials so as to overcome the hurdles while
developing such a weapon, says Endsley.
Further, he also added that these weapons need to be
outfitted with ‘air breather’ booster missiles that can
reach the speed of Mach 1 or 2. As of now these are in
development and are suppose to be much more efficient
in their delivery as compared to the standard missiles.
SR-71, is the fastest manned aircraft to be used till date
by the U.S. Air Force. This aircraft can travel
approximately around 3.5 times the speed of sound. U.S.
Air Force utilized this aircraft to gather intelligence on
Soviet Union. This aircraft not only can escape any
enemy missiles but also it can surpass any amount of
scrambling from the enemy aircraft to hijack it.
With the advent of such super fast hypersonic weapon,
U.S. Air Force would be able to deliver missiles at a very
high speed thus increasing the probability of hitting the
high value targets.
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