USAF Aircraft REACHES MACH 6!!! HOLY CRAP!

[Abdurahman]

THAT IS FAST!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100527/ap_on_sc/us_hypersonic_flight

I mean mach 6 for three whole minutes! That's the fastest speed ever!

[rossmum]

Pretty cool. What'll be really interesting, though, is when this goes from rocket-shaped drones to actual manned, controllable aircraft.

[Warsaw]

Unmanned, not that impressed. A missile regularly skirts on hypersonic by itself. If someone is flying it, however, you have to get around all the stresses put on the pilot and the limitations imposed by the equipment needed to mitigate that stress.

[Kornman00]

However, they did set a new record in how long such a speed was maintained, which is impressive...since no one else has done it yet until now.

Once they figure out how to make a manned craft do such speeds then yes, that will be more so impressive, but you don't learn to run before you walk.

It's like commenting on a kid busting out a guitar solo that "oh well, other people rip out solos too". Doesn't mean that tomorrow he won't be the next Van Halen.

[rossmum]

That's true, but for now these sorts of tests are just means to an end. Individually they're not that huge, but when the end finally arrives, it'll become apparent just how important they were.

[Limited]

I suppose thats cool, it can out run bullets. Can it out run an electromagnetic railgun? Nope.

[Kornman00]

Can an EM-railgun shot outrun the speed of light? Nope

Warp speed...engage :downs:

[rossmum]

Can anything outrun light? Nope. At least not according to Albert Einstein.

[Warsaw]

I suppose thats cool, it can out run bullets. Can it out run an electromagnetic railgun? Nope.

Depends on how much juice you give the railgun. :eng101:

[=sw=warlord]

Can anything outrun light? Nope. At least not according to Albert Einstein.

Gravity. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_hole)

[rossmum]

they don't count http://sae.tweek.us/static/images/emoticons/emot-colbert.gif

[=sw=warlord]

they don't count http://sae.tweek.us/static/images/emoticons/emot-colbert.gifSure they don't :realsmug:

[DEElekgolo]

Aren't re-entry speeds like mach 19>?

[rossmum]

I can't remember but they're pretty high, orbiting speed is something like Mach 16. That's not the point, though, because there's no useful application of that.

[=sw=warlord]

I can't remember but they're pretty high, orbiting speed is something like Mach 16. That's not the point, though, because there's no useful application of that.
Apart from having stable orbits and being able to look at any part of the earth in relatively quick time you mean.

[rossmum]

No, I mean there's no useful application of that in-atmosphere. Also using Mach numbers in space is both stupid and meaningless because there's no sound barrier, I somehow only just realised this

Basically the suggestion that space travel is in any way comparable to atmospheric flight all the way up to the stratosphere is frankly beyond retarded and so is any suggestion that making the extremely costly and physically stressful trip into space just to get somewhere else on the planet is a viable or even sensible idea