USA: Robot Bomber Travels 8 times Faster Than Sound
The department of defence and the US Air Force are jointly sponsoring the programme, known as Force Application and Launch from the Continental United States - Falcon.
"The bottom line is, what we want to be able to do is have the capability to strike anywhere on the globe in less than two hours," said Jan Walker, a spokesperson for the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency in Arlington, Virginia.
The agency and the air force recently selected the programme's first contractors, a 10-company list that includes Northrop Grumman Corp, Lockheed Martin Corp and Orbital Sciences Corporation.
The earliest such a reusable hypersonic aircraft would enter operation would be 2025. But simpler versions of the vehicles, including one designed to carry small satellites to orbit, could be flying within the decade, officials said.
Huge technological hurdles remain, including the development of materials needed to protect the aircraft from the tremendous heat generated during hypersonic flight. How to propel, steer and communicate with the aircraft are other big challenges.
Crucial to the project is the development of an air-breathing engine called a scramjet. Both the agency and Nasa are working on such supersonic combustion ramjets, which scoop oxygen from the atmosphere to burn fuel carried aboard. - Sapa-AP
This article was originally published on page 4 of The Cape Argus on November 28, 2003
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