Falcon hypersonic vehicle test flight fails
Friday, August 12, 2011 - 00:00
in Physics & Chemistry
Engineers and scientists monitoring the Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2, which was designed to fly at 20 times the speed of sound, lost contact with the vehicle midway through a scheduled 30-minute flight from Vandenberg Air Force Base.A test flight of an experimental aircraft traveling at 20 times the speed of sound ended prematurely Thursday morning when the arrowhead-shaped vehicle failed and stopped sending back real-time data to engineers and scientists who were monitoring the mission.