The
Register: The
Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency (DARPA) has thrown its new "Blackswift"
hypersonic-aircraft programme open to all (US) comers, and
confirmed outline details of how the new unmanned hyperplane
prototype will work.In a
government
pdf released last week, DARPA says that Blackswift will
indeed, as speculation had it, be reusable and make takeoffs
and landings from an ordinary runway. The hyperplane will be
required to reach Mach 6 - well in excess of the best speeds
yet reached by runway aircraft - and maintain that stably for
at least a minute.
