PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - France tests hypersonic glide vehicle
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Old 28th Jun 2023, 10:49
  #9 (permalink)  
meleagertoo
 
Join Date: Mar 2018
Location: Central UK
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Can anything turn so tightly at hypersonic speeds, even allowing for it being a great distance away?
Also, how does it retain enough energy for so very many extreme manoeuvres? You'd burn potential energy at a massive rate in descent to keep turning like that, and there's no sign of it descending.
Additionally tip vortices in the stratosphere (which is very dry) are surely unlikely to be so dense? I'd have thought you'd need to be burning a great deal of fuel to make vapour trails like that.
I'm a bit sceptical that what we're beng shown is what's being described.
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