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Two recent groundbreaking hypersonic test flights featured a Northrop Grumman capability designed to allow high-speed systems to navigate and maneuver when GPS isn't available. The company told Defense News this week that its inertial measurement unit, or IMU, flew onboard Stratolaunch's Talon-A glide vehicle during its first two hypersonic flights in December and March . The successful demonstration of IMU technology on a hypersonic aircraft - which can travel and maneuver at speeds of Mach 5 or higher - is an industry first, according to Jonathan Green, Northrop's chief technology officer for emerging capabilities development. "It met all of our goals … and the fact that it survived throughout this first flight test - these are all incredibly positive developments for how we're maturing this technology," he said in an interview. The Pentagon disclosed the Talon-A tests this week, marking the first successful flights of a reusable hy...

China is entering the competition to initiate a new era of supersonic air travel by planning to develop an aircraft that could compete with the Concorde, as reported by local media outlets. According to reports from the South China Morning Post, COMAC (Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China) recently disclosed plans for the C949 – a supersonic aircraft capable of reaching speeds up to Mach 1.6, which would make it faster and have longer range compared to the Concorde – as mentioned in an academic publication. The document stated that the initiative aimed for a 50 percent increase in range compared to the Concorde and was engineered to ensure the aircraft operates as silently as the sound produced by a hair dryer. The system will utilize a curved planar structure designed to reduce shockwaves, thereby mitigating intense sonic booms that might otherwise be generated by the aircraft, as per the SCMP report. Related Travel from New York to London in unde...