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Dive into the riveting story of the North American X-15, the legendary rocket plane that bridged the gap between conventional airplanes and the Space Shuttle. Uncover the triumphs and tragedies of the pilots who rode this hypersonic beast to the threshold of space, facing deadly G-forces, blistering heat, and the unforgiving vacuum of the upper atmosphere. Learn about the radical aerospace innovations that made Mach 6.7 possible. Mach 6.7: America's Most Dangerous Ride to Space. Piloting a Bomb: Inside the Cockpit of the X-15 | 1:44:54 DroneScapes | 496K subscribers | 47,838 views | May 2, 2026

U.S. Central Command has requested deployment of the Army’s Long Range Hypersonic Weapon, known as Dark Eagle, to the Middle East, according to a Bloomberg report citing a person with direct knowledge of the matter. A defense official told Fox News Digital the system has reached initial operational capability, marking the first time the U.S. has a land-based hypersonic weapon available for potential use.

ARLINGTON— The Navy took a major step forward in delivering game-changing hypersonic strike power to carrier pilots when it awarded California startup Castelion a contract nearing $105 million to fully integrate the Blackbeard hypersonic weapon onto the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. The deal puts U.S. forces on a fast track to field its first operational air-launched hypersonic strike weapon from carrier decks by 2027. Unlike land-based ballistic missiles, Blackbeard is made for Navy aircraft carriers and can be launched from an F/A-18 fighter jet operating hundreds of miles from shore, giving the U.S. enhanced capabilities to strike an adversary’s missile batteries...

Hypersonic weapons are reshaping modern military competitions. As the U.S. advances its capabilities, understanding the structure, progress, and strategic intent of its programs is essential. Current efforts focus on building reliability and interoperability across domains, creating a cohesive defense network. This integration provides a strategic advantage in contested environments, ensuring systems remain accurate, resilient, and adaptable for future operational needs. Background The United States is currently developing three hypersonic weapons programs: the Navy’s Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS), the Army’s Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW), and the Air Force’s Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM). Compared with China, which reportedly has five hypersonic...

From a distance, it looks like a war plane imagined by Hayao Miyazaki, or the type of machine that could only exist in a science fiction novel. But according to aviation enthusiasts who captured footage of it soaring in the California skies last week, it’s an experimental aircraft designed by Stratolaunch, an aerospace company located in the Mojave Desert. Chances are, residents in surrounding towns will see more of it, too. Described as the world’s largest flying aircraft, Roc — which looks like two 747s fused together and has a wingspan larger than a football field — recently completed a...

The ‘cement-coated’ YKJ-1000 could prove ‘formidably competitive’ internationally if sold at the relatively cheap price of US$99,000Chinese aerospace firm Lingkong Tianxing unveiled a hypersonic glide missile last week that has a range of up to 1,300 km (800 miles) and a top speed of Mach 7. The YKJ-1000 has been nicknamed the “cement-coated” missile for its use of civilian-grade materials such as foamed concrete in its heat-resistant coating. According to slides widely circulated online, the unit production cost of this missile, already in mass production after successful combat trials, may be as low as 700,000 yuan (around US$99,000). A single...

When the headlines scream about trillion-dollar defense budgets vanishing into black holes, it’s a rare jolt to see the Pentagon back a project that actually delivers firepower without draining the taxpayer’s wallet dry. Enter Castelion, [https://www.castelion.com/], the scrappy California-based defense outfit that’s just locked in contracts to bolt its Blackbeard hypersonic missile onto Army and Navy gear—real platforms, not pie-in-the-sky prototypes. Announced yesterday, this deal is a straight shot at fielding weapons that can outpace threats from Beijing to Moscow, all while keeping costs grounded in reality. Castelion, barely three years old and holed up in Torrance with outposts in...

A new Chinese hypersonic engine could cut long-haul flights to under an hour, pushing aircraft to unprecedented speeds. This breakthrough in propulsion technology might reshape global travel and military strategy. China Unveils an Engine Capable of an Astonishing 20,000 KM/H, That Can Circle the Globe in Just 2 Hours | The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel ========================================================================= A new hypersonic engine developed in China could revolutionize air travel by reducing long-haul flight times to mere minutes. Capable of reaching Mach 16—approximately 20,000 km/h (12,250 mph)—this propulsion system represents a significant leap in aerospace engineering. Developed at the Beijing Power Machinery...

Absent the leaders in Beijing acting like they will be the next Golden Horde, America’s fleet of aircraft carriers might have been headed for the mothball fleet, floating museums, or candidates as artificial reefs. That’s not going to happen. The odds are that the Trump administration will extend the lease on life for carrier-centric fleet operations for another generation. Here is why.

History has been made by Stratolaunch, a hypersonic flight test research company headquartered in Mojave, California. The fully autonomous Talon-A2, equipped with landing gear, has successfully exceeded speeds of Mach five and completed its second autonomous landing at Vandenburg Space Force Base. This mission documentary follows the first recovered flight of TA-2, the result of five years of effort and dedication marking a pivotal moment in sustainable hypersonic flight test for our country. Congratulations to the Stratolaunch team and partners on this success! Next steps: fly TA-2 again and again, increasing the cadence of hypersonic flight tests for the United...

Russia’s Skolkovo Foundation, with Clinton’s copious help, was the source of Russia’s incredible hypersonic weapons technology. During his first TV interview as the new President of the United States, Donald Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity that the Russian Federation had been “stealing” hypersonic weapons research and development from the United States during the Obama administration. This point went viral. But the story is murkier than that. Certainly, Russia did acquire key components from the United States during the Obama administration. But they did not steal it. They purchased it. And the person who authorized the sale was none other...

The U.S. Navy is transforming a costly flub into a potent weapon with the first shipborne hypersonic weapon, which is being retrofitted aboard the first of its three stealthy destroyers. The USS Zumwalt is at a Mississippi shipyard where workers have installed missile tubes that replace twin turrets from a gun system that was never activated because it was too expensive. Once the system is complete, the Zumwalt will provide a platform for conducting fast, precision strikes from greater distances, adding to the usefulness of the warship. “It was a costly blunder. But the Navy could take victory from the...

In the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the Israeli ambassador met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and got from him a guarantee that Moscow would not kill his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky. Now, 3 years later, Israel got into two wars of its own and implemented a jaw-dropping program of decapitation strikes that took out the complete leaderships of Hamas and Hezbollah. But now, Russia, after having Western-made long-range missile strikes into its territory, has unveiled a new hypersonic weapon Oreshnik (Hazel), and after a first strike in a defense compound in Dnipropetrovsk, is warning that it may now...

Nov. 23 (UPI) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin says the new Oreshnik hypersonic missile used against Ukraine this week will go into serial production and is "ready to be used" again if necessary.Speaking on Friday during a televised meeting with members of his Security Council, defense industry officials and missile developers, the Russian leader said the Oreshnik cannot be stopped or intercepted and will be deployed as part of the country's Strategic Missile Forces."We need to launch serial production," he said, according to the state-run TASS news agency. "Let's say that the decision has been made that the system will...

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – NATO and Ukraine will hold emergency talks Tuesday after Russia attacked a central city with an experimental, hypersonic ballistic missile that escalated the nearly 33-month-old war. The conflict is “entering a decisive phase,” Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Friday, and “taking on very dramatic dimensions.” Ukraine’s parliament canceled a session as security was tightened following Thursday’s Russian strike on a military facility in the city of Dnipro.

The US military is set to conduct a test launch of a hypersonic nuclear missile hours after polls close on Election Day. An unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) is scheduled to blast off between 11:01pm and 5:01am PT from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base. **SNIP** But military officials noted that the 'test is routine and was scheduled years in advance.' They said the purpose of the test was to show the 'readiness of nuclear US forces' and provide 'confidence in the nation's nuclear deterrence' amid fears of the growing threat of the outbreak of World War III. The...

The U.S. Army and Navy have recently completed a flight test of a hypersonic missile as the United States seeks to keep pace with its geopolitical rivals—China and Russia—in developing hypersonic capabilities.The military performed the flight test from the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai, Hawaii, to gather data on the overall performance of the long-range hypersonic weapon (LRHW), the Pentagon said on June 28.The LRHW is equipped with the Navy’s Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) All-Up-Round missile—which consists of a two-stage solid rocket motor booster and a hypersonic glide body—and the Army’s canister.CPS is a hypersonic missile development and test...

Hypersonic flight startup Hermeus has publicly unveiled its first flyable aircraft, called the Quarterhorse Mk 1. A previous version, Quarterhorse Mk.0, was successfully tested on the ground in January 2024. Hermeus Via X: Mk 1 is our second fully-integrated vehicle built in just the past year. This rate of iteration highlights the new standard Hermeus has set for the pace of aircraft development: One aircraft per year. Each aircraft in the Quarterhorse program progressively increases in complexity, building on the learnings of prior builds. The new model is not yet capable of reaching hypersonic speeds. However, the uncrewed experimental aircraft...

Ukrainian air defenders on Friday morning had fought a tough overnight battle against nearly a hundred missiles and drones launched by Russia at targets across the country, shooting down the bulk of the Kremlin’s strike packages, but by their own reckoning failing to intercept any of Moscow’s ballistic missiles. According to Ukrainian military announcements, the Russian Federation overnight from Thursday to Friday launched 99 long-range weapons at Ukraine. An estimated 58-60 were propeller-driven, Iranian-exported Shahed drones. Based on open-source air defense reports reviewed by Kyiv Post, Russian strike planners used the Shahed drones to probe and where possible spread thin...

A trio of Vladimir Putin's leading hypersonic scientists have been detained on suspicion of high treason in what fellow scientists have declared a 'witch hunt' Aerodynamics specialist Dr Valery Zvegintsev, 78, is the latest of three prominent scientists from the Khristianovich Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics in Novosibirsk to be arrested on extremely serious charges. Zvegintsev, 78, along with Anatoly Maslov and Alexander Shiplyuk, are seen as key figures in the development of Russia's hypersonic weapons programme which is thought to be one of the world's most advanced. News of their detention on suspicion of high treason comes days...