ooer, that's a bit quick..

[Stoo]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/73/36581.html

NASA's experimental scramjet aircraft - the X-43A - will tomorrow makes its second attempt to reach Mach 7 (around 5,000mph).

[MA_Moby]

Originally Posted by Stoo

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/73/36581.html

NASA's experimental scramjet aircraft - the X-43A - will tomorrow makes its second attempt to reach Mach 7 (around 5,000mph).

That's just silly fast! Surely there's nowhere you want to get to that quickly!

There were rumours several years back of a black project prototype flying at speeds in excess of Mach 5 over Manchester. Nobody knows if they were coming or going, but they were surely in a mighty hurry.

[Stoo]

Yeah, there have been various black projects tested over the atlantic, mainly I think because if anything crashes there very little chance anyone will see it, and the evidence will drop to the bottom of the ocean anyway.

I know there have been several instances of things being tracked by seizmometers going at mach 7+ over the ocean, and a couple of incidents of strange aircraft with traditional fighter escorts being spotted by people on oil rigs (a notable one being from an ex RAF spotter - I think that's the word? ).

Just think, the stealth fighter was first conceived in 1977/78, with the first test flights being in the mid 1980's, and reports of strange and very very fast aircraft have been circulating since the middle to late 1990's.. Which based on other black projects would mean that in the next 5 years or so, whatever it is should be entering active service.

Begs the question of how the hell you shoot it down, and how you eject in an emergency...

[Dakaras]

In answer Stoo you dont shoot it down and you dont get out

[[GSV]Trig]

If you want to eject in an emergency I'm sure messers martin and baker could assist you in your quest...

The pilot would most likely leave the aircraft in a pod of some sort...

[Skii]

No mention of it being piloted

[[GSV]Trig]

Someones not drinking enuf to not be able to read properlyl...

[Stoo]

yeah, hypersonic UAV, now that'd be scarey.. also has the bonus of not having to worry about a pilot blacking out from pulling silly G levels..

[BUFF]

Originally Posted by Stoo

Just think, the stealth fighter was first conceived in 1977/78, with the first test flights being in the mid 1980's, .

Actually, first flight of Have Blue (which evolved into the F117) was in December 1977. The initial project started in 1974.
The first F-117A flew on June 18, 1981 and the first F-117A unit, the 4450th Tactical Group, achieved initial operating capability in October 1983.

Now as for the fabled Aurora etc. ....

[Stoo]

Just been having a mooch around the net, info on Aurora (or whatever it really was) appears to have dried up - nothing new has popped up anywhere since 1996 ish, most of the last sightings were reports of diamond shaped flat aircraft leaving behind donut-on-a-rope contrails (the telltale sign of a scramjet engine)..

Oh and..

"The first stealth fighters were flown by Lockheed C-5 Galaxy cargo plane to Groom Dry Lake, where they took to the air for the first time in June 1981.

The first F-117A was delivered in 1982. The F-117A production decision was made in 1978 with a contract awarded to Lockheed Advanced Development Projects, the "Skunk Works," in Burbank, California. The first flight was in 1981, only 31 months after the full-scale development decision. Air Combat Command's only F-117A unit, the 4450th Tactical Group, (now the 49th Fighter Wing, Holloman Air Force Base, N.M.), achieved operational capability in October 1983."

Have Blue was the scaled down technology demonstrator

[Zak33]

I'm with Trig on a POD to get out....

but Skii is closer...why is it manned at all

[Nick]

So thre's someone to go:

WOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

[Zak33]

yup...good point...

wooohoooo IS vital to a high speed pass on a trawler full of Spanish fishermen

[BUFF]

Originally Posted by Stoo

Have Blue was the scaled down technology demonstrator

Which evolved into the F117, as I said .
& the conception for a stealth aircraft resulted in the start of that project in 1974.
At least we agree on first flight & first operational unit capability

I've actually touched a "Nighthawk"

[Stoo]

Originally Posted by BUFF

I've actually touched a "Nighthawk"

Goit

[BUFF]

Originally Posted by Stoo

Goit

Smeghead

You a Red Dwarf fan?