Originally Posted by
Heathrow Harry
Also a potential issue with the military - people are going to feel very uncomfortable about something taking off from (say ) N America and heading at hypersonic speed towards Moscow of Beijing - especially if the military have also deployed hypersonic missiles..............
It's easy to spot the difference between a Gulfstream and a Minuteman - not so if they both have the same speed and flight profile
HH, people have been launching rockets into earth orbit for 60 years, with very little difference between orbital and sub orbital trajectories - yet somehow they know the difference between satellite launches and ballistic missiles...
If the intent was to nuke Moscow or Beijing (or New York or London), why bother with a hypersonic aircraft (still an hour or more) instead of the currently available ICBMs (minutes)?