Virgin Galactic and NASA to team up for super-speedy hypersonic flights

[Jay-qu]

Virgin Galactic has huge wads of cash and NASA has lots of research chops, so the two plan to combine those strengths to develop this hypersonic plane that could go Mach 5, taking you from New York to LA in about 45 minutes. This kind of point-to-point speed is nothing new for the U.S. space agency, which has already tested a scramjet that can go twice that fast, hitting 7000-mph. The idea here is to make this super speed more financially feasible, opening it up to you and me.

 

SCI FI Tech | SCIFI.COM

[Racoon]

Cool Article Jay-Q dude! :)

 

I tried to start a little convo on the topic.

You can fly faster from LA to NY than it takes to go through Airport screening and security! :(

 

Plug: http://hypography.com/forums/engineering-applied-science/9790-hypersonic-flight.html?highlight=hypersonic+flight

[Pangolin]

I'm not sure this is really a good idea. NASA launching science missions is one thing but billionaires using the the upper atmosphere as a surfboard while leaving a fat trail of greenhouse gases in their wakes is another.

 

VERY mixed feelings here.