Pentagon's $320M hypersonic drone tore itself apart as the hull heated to 3,500 degrees at 20 TIMES the speed of sound



A $320 million hypersonic drone developed by the Pentagon tore itself apart after just three minutes after it blasted through the atmosphere at 20 times the speed of sound.



When the military launched of the Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 last summer, it was widely viewed as a failure because it was lost over the Pacific Ocean well before its flight, scheduled for 30 minutes, was supposed to end.

The craft was a prototype of a weapon the the Defense Department hopes could carry explosives to strike targets anywhere in the world within an hour.

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Hypersonic: The Falcon HTV-2 traveled at 20 times the speed of sound, 15,200 miles per hour. That's fast enough to fly from New York to Los Angeles in 22 minutes

Data released by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency this week shows that the flight in August was not the disappointment originally thought, the Los Angeles Times reports.



The craft was launched from a rocket fired from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Once in the air, it detached and flew on its own power.

The Falcon HTV-2, shaped like a arrowhead to increase its aerodynamics, traveled at more than 15,200 miles per hour.

At that speed, it could fly from New York to Los Angeles in about 22 minutes.



But the craft couldn't sustain the extreme velocity for long. After just three minutes of flight over the Pacific Ocean, the craft generated heat of 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit, hot enough to liquify steel.



The intense heat, coupled with the speed, caused the skin of the Falcon to peel away from the frame.



Torn apart: The Falcon became so hot, the skin began to peel away from the frame, sending intense shock waves through the craft

The result created an intense shock wave that rippled through the craft and destabilized it, causing it to crash into the Pacific Ocean well short of its target.



However, the fact that the craft remained intact at all through the test flight is a good sign, the government says.



'The initial shock wave disturbances experienced... from which the vehicle was able to recover and continue controlled flight, exceeded by more than 100 times what the vehicle was designed to withstand,' DARPA Acting Director Kaigham J. Gabriel said.

Video footage tracked the stages of the Falcon's launch

'That’s a major validation that we’re advancing our understanding of aerodynamic control for hypersonic flight.'

The Falcon was designed to deliver a non-nuclear payload anywhere across the globe in a matter of minutes. Currently, Tomahawk Cruise Missiles, which the US Navy launches from ships, have a range of about 1,500 miles and fly at a comparatively sluggish 550 miles per hour.



The $320 million Falcon program had two launches. The first lasted nine minutes. There are no future launches scheduled.