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2012-04-25 14:47:07 DARPA's Falcon Vehicle Test Results Released

Transcript by Newsy: http://www.youtube.com/user/NewsyTech?feature=guide BY LEAH BECERRA ANCHOR LAUREN ZIMA It's a bird, it's a plane-- no, it's a Falcon! Well, it's the Pentagon's Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's first Falcon test run took place last August. The results for that test, along with results from a similar test a month ago, were finally released this week. As far as most people can see both trials failed, KETK explains the first test run. "For nine minutes ...[ DARPA] flew its Hypersonic Technology Vehicle at speeds reaching 20 times the speed of sound -- fast enough to fly from New York to Los Angeles in less than 12 minutes. But then, something went wrong..." The outer shell of the Falcon basically started peeling off. DARPA initially offered no explanation for why this happened. After testing the second Falcon vehicle last month though, the falcon's difficulties were made clear. Fox news spoke with a technical adviser about the tests. "I have to emphasize, this is very difficult problem they're trying to solve. They're trying to develop a vehicle that can travel at immense speeds through the upper atmosphere, with high forces and very high heat..." On top of just creating a vehicle to withstand this environment, DARPA scientists are also trying to control the Falcon. The goal is a weapon that can destroy a target within a window of mere seconds. Even though both tests failed the LA Times points out the good news. "The flight successfully demonstrated stable aerodynamically controlled flight at speeds up to Mach (mock) 20 for nearly three minutes." This is small victory for the project that has cost taxpayers roughly $320 million since 2003. TIME also points out that the Falcon project isn't the only beneficiary of these tests. "The engineering study ...will inform policy, acquisition and operational decisions for future Conventional Prompt Global Strike initiatives...the goal of which, ultimately, is to have the capability to reach anywhere in the world in less than one hour..." At this time, there's no news of additional Falcon test flights.

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