The end of the hypersound era?
The American hypersonic Falcon unit crashed approximately 35 minutes after the launch. The discovery that it was impossible to control an aircraft at hypersonic speed broke up the long-term developments of the American military and scientists. The thing is that at such a tremendous speed, which is XSNUMX times more supersonic, a plasma cloud forms around the aircraft that does not transmit any radio waves. The first stage of testing - the withdrawal of the aircraft at the boundary of the atmosphere and space using a decommissioned launch vehicle - was successful. And the second stage ended in failure, after 20 minutes after uncoupling from the launch vehicle, communication with the hypersonic aircraft was lost.
The reason, as mentioned earlier, was the formed cloud of cold plasma, which does not transmit radio waves. After the connection with the device was lost, the plane’s computer sent it to the sea. According to engineers, the loss of communication occurred at a stage when the plane was supposed to decline in the planning mode, but because of a breakdown to the base it did not reach. After another failure, the project was decided not to freeze, work on the development of the aircraft continues.
The body of the hypersonic aircraft is made of a highly durable composite material capable of withstanding temperatures that are higher than the melting point of steel. The shape of the aircraft is similar to the tip of a spear, and its length is only three and a half meters. 308 millions were already spent on work on the project, and both test aircraft fell into the sea after communication with them was lost.
The first X-43A model was capable of flying at a speed of 11230 kilometers per hour, this aircraft became the prototype of the falcon, and it was with him that the pursuit of hypersonic speed began. It has a new, experimental engine, in which there are absolutely no parts rubbing against each other. The fuel for the aircraft is a mixture of oxygen with hydrogen, in the course of the reaction, instead of exhaust gases, ordinary water vapor is obtained.
Before the present flight, DARPA department technicians conducted a series of complex tests with loads similar to hypersonic flight, but they were not enough, and the plane fell into the sea. The flight was monitored with the help of more than twenty sensors from the earth, space, sea and air. Based on the data obtained with their help, employees of DARPA plan to eliminate the problem of the formation of a cold plasma cloud or find a way to transmit radio waves through it.
The Americans conducted the development of the Falcon, aiming to create an aircraft that would be able to deliver ammunition, including a nuclear bomb, to any point on earth within an hour. They plan to complete all the trials and release the final version by 2026. DARPA engineers say that they do not regret the loss of another prototype, because it produced a huge amount of data that should help solve the problem, as well as establish the optimal design of a hypersonic aircraft for flying at such enormous speeds (about twenty-one thousand kilometers per hour). ).
After the fall of the Falcon, a special committee of scientists was assembled that would have to analyze all the data obtained during the tests and submit a detailed report to a commission of engineers who would already decide in which direction to conduct development in order to achieve complete control and support of communication at all stages flight. Russian scientists are sure that at the moment it is impossible to solve this problem, since this phenomenon, called the cold plasma cloud, has not been studied enough and it will take about 19-25 years to find a way to transmit signals through the plasma cloud. And as a result of this, a lot more millions of American dollars will be needed for the project. Although this is a military development created as part of the “instant global strike” program, it is possible that in the future such aircraft will also be used in peaceful aviation, to overcome huge distances in a short time.
Similar developments are also being carried out in Russia, but our planes are not threatened with such an outcome, as they are completely autonomous and do not need to be controlled from the ground. Russian designers initially build an autonomously controlled aircraft, and no one is going to remake it under manual control, since the goal of our hypersonic aircraft is completely different than that of the American ones. It lies in the creation of ultra-maneuverable hypersonic units for the transport of ballistic missiles, they initially laid the purpose of flight, and they do not need to be controlled from the outside. The advantage of hypersonic blocks over conventional ones is that conventional blocks cease to be maneuverable when entering the border with space and the atmosphere and become very vulnerable to antimissile defense systems, and hypersonic blocks can continue their flight after entering this border and maintain their previous maneuverability.
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