The Falcon Hypersonic Test Vehicle is not only 22 times faster than a commercial jetliner, it’s also capable of reaching Mach 20, which is roughly 21 000 kph. So basically it’s kak fast. It’s so fast that the company that created it, The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), have lost it at sea. Again.

Darpa had this to say about the HTV-2 on its site:

“air doesn’t travel around you – you rip it apart.”

What a surprise, coming from the US Military.

Apparently the craft was executing ‘glide phase’ maneuvers, meant to test its aerodynamics when contact was lost. Although the craft was intended to eventually land in the Pacific Ocean anyway, the amount of information received in the previous flight, which took place in 2010 and also ended up sleeping with the fishes, was more sufficient. A whopping nine-minutes of data was recorded on that flight.

The most recent flight was to test control and communications capabilities, as well as heat resistance and other effects of hypersonic flight.

Get this, DARPA’s aim is to create a craft that can reach any target on earth, in less than an hour.

So other than ripping the atmosphere a new one, they can fuck your shit up ASAP.

Oh and how many tax dollars did this cost?

[Source: cnn]