France tests hypersonic glide vehicle
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France tests hypersonic glide vehicle
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Not a lot of dissipation evident No mention of a sonic boom that I have heard.
Gnome de PPRuNe
Join Date: Jan 2002
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Looks like a signature... Radar O'Reiily's ? 
Actually the bottom right squiggles look like they form a ram... (Jet?)
Actually the bottom right squiggles look like they form a ram... (Jet?)
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.
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.
They orbited at high altitude close to the projected flight path and filmed the shuttle to monitor for broken tiles. I suppose it's possible that something similar was going on from Cazaux, although not necessarily filming nor for tile monitoring.
