The U.S. Defense Advanced projects research agency.UU. (DARPA) reported that it lost contact with a test aircraft called Falcon HTV 2, Hypersonic Technology vehicle, as reported by the BBC website.
The device, which travels so fast that it would be able to reach Buenos Aires in just 2 minutes from the city of Mexico fell into the sea and lost contact with their creators.
Well, in what should be, it could transmit information to their operations centre 20 minutes.
The Hypersonic technology allowed the aircraft five times or more the speed of sound, i.e., up to 21 thousand miles per hour.
The ship is at the experimental stage, and while there is some level of autonomy, was essentially handled by remote control by the engineers of the DARPA.
“The technologies developed for engaging the US Defense tend to have a beneficial effect on areas commercial and civil;” “but our focus is defense,” he told BBC World DARPA Eric Mazzacone spokesman.
Studied on this trip included effects of aerodynamics, high temperatures in the vehicle (supports more than 2,000 degrees Celsius) and the operation of systems of command, navigation and remote at these speeds.
“Flights of long duration to Mach 20 (twenty times the speed of sound) in the atmosphere represents a new frontier and we still have much to learn,” said the spokesman.
© 2011 Univision Communications Inc.
