NASA jet breaks speed record

[Bishop]

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/03/28/h...ight/index.html (http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/03/28/hypersonic.jet.flight/index.html)

The plane was only 12 feet long.. I heard about this yesterday I guess it was. I was trying to figure out how a plane that was only 12 feet long managed to carry a person with big enough balls to fly that fast. I kept thinking how did they haul the dump truck behind the plane? Turns out it was an un-manned flight. Makes sense to me now. They are going to have to build a much bigger plane to accomidate the future pilots balls. :D

[Mike AI]

I read about this - very impressive technology.

[kath]

They've been doing a lot of speed tests out here in the desert lately... reports of sonic booms have flooded the media with no answer other than "government or NASA testing possibly" to go by (we just thought they were earthquakes - lol) I wondered if this speed record thing had anything to do with it, but it's been going on for sometime and it looks like this was a one-time one-shot deal.

Interesting news... I hope with the whole world trying to get to the moon, outerspace and whatnot, that the US programs step up and start pushing forward again like they used to... I think we've gotten lazy...

Cool news though - the kids were very impressed! :biglaugh:

[Almighty Colin]

"NASA said it could test a vehicle at Mach 10 by the end of the year."

[*KK*]

Can the human body actually maintain any consistency under those conditions? One can only imagine the G force at work, it seems to me that your eyeballs might just come out the back of your head, no?

Colin?

[JR]

KK, modern fighter planes are already exceeding the human bodies ability to sustain the g forces created. the next generation of fighter planes will mostly be unmanned since the pilot now represents the biggest limitation to the planes performance.

[kath]

Originally posted by *KK*@Mar 29 2004, 10:49 AM
Can the human body actually maintain any consistency under those conditions? One can only imagine the G force at work, it seems to me that your eyeballs might just come out the back of your head, no?

Colin?
Ouch! :blink:

"NASA said it could test a vehicle at Mach 10 by the end of the year."

WOW.... by the end of the year? Now THAT is impressive! :rokk:

[Hammer]

At 5000 miles an hour it will still take over half an hour to fly from my house to Cybernet and by the time you add the trip to the airport, waiting for luggage and catching a cab it's still going to take me way more than what I think is a reasonable amount of time to get there.

I really hope scientists are working on some sort of transporter because this just isn't cutting it.

P.S. Hey Gonzo, is someone on this board using the name 'Hammer'? I've never seen anyone post using that name so I'd really like to have it. I know I am 'The Hammer' but I'd really rather just be like ordinary folk and use my name. Can you help a fellow southerner out? :rokk:



Last edited by The Hammer at Mar 29 2004, 04:53 PM

[Almighty Colin]

Originally posted by *KK*@Mar 29 2004, 01:49 PM
Can the human body actually maintain any consistency under those conditions? One can only imagine the G force at work, it seems to me that your eyeballs might just come out the back of your head, no?

Colin?
A commercial flight could be designed with a very reasonable acceleration. Accelerating at 1g, for example, will get you to 5000 mph in just about 4 minutes.

Astronauts feel about 3-4g's during a normal rocket launch.

[Dravyk]

It's not just speed, it's geometry too.

The Aussie commercial scramjet proposal is you launch, hit orbital status, skip along the atmosphere at zero friction, glide back down. That's supposed to do a NYC to Sydney trip in 90 minutes, they say.

Not sure how feasible the concept is or not, just passing it along.