Air Force, DARPA team up on new hypersonic flight project

The U.S. Air Force is teaming up with the military's Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) on a new project to test the capabilities of hypersonic flight, according to military officials.

The experimental program is in the process of being finalized, and aims to advance research on hypersonic flight, including building upon the knowledge gained from the Air Force's $300 million X-51A Waverider program, which began in 2004.

The unmanned X-51A successfully completed the program's final flight on May 1, reaching a top speed of Mach 5.1 (more than five times the speed of sound) and traveling more than 230 nautical miles (425 kilometers) in just over six minutes before its planned crash-landing in the Pacific Ocean.

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