NASA pushes mac 10 (11,000 km/h speeds)

[Morbid Angel]

very interesting...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4018117.stm

[mcvltd]

Indeed.... but I worry and frett about getting onboard a 737, doing mach 9.6 is a totally different kettle of fish! Think I'll take a boat instead!

[RErender]

heh, I think I'd rather die than spend much more time crammed in those little airplane seats (I'm 6'-5"). 20 mins or so to Europe sounds pretty good.

Ram jets are pretty cool, the more air they get the faster they go and the faster they go the more air they get...

[R2J2]

Indeed.... but I worry and frett about getting onboard a 737, doing mach 9.6 is a totally different kettle of fish! Think I'll take a boat instead!

Once you break the sound barrier it's a really smooth ride, probably feel a bit better about it

[Tog]

Take a turn at mach 9.6 and you will be transformed in tomatoes soup

[Morbid Angel]

well I watched a show on discovery about this. Aparently none of the planes survived the test flights; the friction is such that the heating reaches 1500 deg celcius and pretty much none of the composites of which the craft is made of can withstand that, so it literally melts...