View source for Hypersonic flight

{{Refimprove|date=December 2007}}
'''Hypersonic flight''' is [[flight]] through the [[atmosphere]] at speeds above about Mach 5.5, a speed where disassociation of air begins to become significant and high heat loads exist.

[[Hypersonic]] flight has been achieved by the [[X-15]] rocket planes, the [[Space Shuttle]]'s orbiter, the [[Apollo program|Apollo]] [[Apollo Command/Service Module|command module]], [[Buran (spacecraft)|Buran]] and [[scramjet]]s.

==History==
The [[V-2]] rocket, first used in World War II by the Germans and [[Operation Paperclip|later used by the United States in its early rocketry work]], was the first manufactured object to achieve hypersonic flight. In February 1949, its upper stage reached a maximum velocity of 5,150 miles per hour (8,288 kilometers per hour)—more than five times the speed of sound {{Altitude needed|date=May 2012}}. The vehicle, however, burned on re-entry, and only charred remnants were found. In April 1961, Russian Major Yuri Gagarin became the first human to travel at hypersonic speed, during the world's first piloted orbital flight. Soon after, in May 1961, Alan Shepard became the first American and second person to achieve hypersonic flight when his capsule reentered the atmosphere at a speed above Mach 5 at the end of his suborbital flight over the Atlantic Ocean. In June, Air Force Major Robert White flew the X-15 research airplane at speeds over Mach 5, and broke his own record in November, reaching Mach 6.7.

On 22 March 2010 the second successful flight in Australia of a hypersonic jet was reported.<ref>http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/03/22/2852999.htm?section=justin Hypersonic plane passes latest test www.abc.net 22 March 2010</ref>

==Proposed hypersonic aircraft==

*[[HyperSoar]]
*[[Boeing X-51]]

==Cancelled hypersonic aircraft==

*[[Sanger bomber]]
*[[X-20 Dyna-Soar]]
*[[Rockwell X-30]] (National Aerospace Plane)

==See also==

*[[Scramjet]]
*[[Hypersonic]]
*[[Supersonic transport]]
*[[Lifting body]]
*[[Atmospheric entry]]

==References==
<references/>
*[http://naca.central.cranfield.ac.uk/reports/1958/naca-report-1382.pdf A comparative analysis of the performance of long-range hypervelocity vehicles]

[[Category:Aerodynamics]]
[[Category:Aerospace engineering]]
[[Category:Airspeed]]