This article consists of four pages.
Looks like the first test failed because of an age-old problem called "inertial coupling" where yaw induces roll, and the roll got out of hand so the autopilot splashed the test aircraft in the ocean.
The whole thing kinda reminds me of the WW II era German "Antipodal Bomber" in that it is designed to skip along the upper atmosphere until it gets near its target, except this one dives in for the kill. At these speeds, it seems that including allowing time for launch, we should be able to easily hit anywhere on the planet within about an hour.
The title of the project has the word "conventional" in it for some reason. |