US Air Force tests hypersonic glider

The US Air Force launched an experimental hypersonic glider able to travel more than 4,000 miles in 30 minutes over the Pacific Ocean, it was confirmed today.

The 30th Space Wing at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California said a Minotaur 4 rocket carrying the glider blasted off yesterday afternoon from the central California coast.

The Air Force statement does not reveal the result of the test involving the Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2.

A fact sheet from the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency says the vehicle was to be accelerated into the upper atmosphere, separate from its booster and glide across the Pacific at 13,000mph.

Thirty minutes and 4,100 miles later it was to crash and sink near Kwajalein Atoll, some 2,100 miles southwest of Hawaii.