Ever since the term hypersonic entered the pantheon of national security buzzwords a few years ago, conversation has largely been relegated to missiles, but throughout a fair portion of the Cold War, the United States seemed well on its way to fielding hypersonic aircraft the likes of which the world has still never seen.
While today’s supersonic fighters and bombers can fly at speeds in excess of Mach 1, or around 760 miles per hour, hypersonic aircraft would fly at speeds in excess of Mach 5, or faster than 3,800 miles per hour. Missiles traveling at that speed are all but indefensible with today’s technology and it stands to some reason that hypersonic aircraft would be similarly difficult to target today, let alone during the Cold War. Keeping a bag of meat alive inside a metal tube traveling at 6,000+ miles per hour, however, is no easy undertaking. And while America’s efforts to field hypersonic aircraft didn’t manifest in an operational platform, it’s easy to see why many thought this sort of mind-boggling speed represented the future of military aviation. Indeed, maybe it still does.
