Howdy!

On Thu, Sep 3, 2020 at 4:41 AM <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> https://www.bbc.com/news/business-53598874
>
> Not a huge science paper, just a report on some of what's going on.
>
> One of the more enigmatic and not really explained comments in the article was that Mach 4.5 physics were easier than Mach 5 physics. It seems odd that the extra half a Mach really changes things and the article doesn't expand on it.

I suspect that the level of heating involved is sufficiently more
challenging at mach 5 as to make a meaningful difference.

There were hints at that.

yours,
Michael
>
> The picture of a possible Mach 5+ US Presidential aircraft caught my eye. It looks pretty. Maybe this is what TL-9 air traffic (or TL-10+ in a non contra-grav setting) could look like.
>
> I have a friend in Tokyo's suburbs. I could likely get to see him in 3 hours in one of these birds... if I had a gajillion dollars and we both last another 15-20 years...
>
> The cynic in me says 'another toy for the 1%ers and corporate bosses' but that's only on the civilian side. On the military side, carrier-killer missiles and so on may well change the strategic value of carriers and their strike wings and maybe put us back into a ballistic missile concern (in the form of a non-ballistic submarine launched or ground launched hyper velocity strategic missile). I'll bet if one of those was fired from Russia into Norway or Poland.... it'd be there before anyone really had a good idea it was on the way (let alone having a mechanism to stop anything that fast).
>
> Still, the plane idea is kind of cool and it looks like they may be able to make low orbit so they might be one way to get people to low orbital habitats/stations.
>
> TomB
>
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>
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--
Michael Houghton   | Herveus d'Ormonde
xxxxxx@gmail.com         | White Wolf and the Phoenix
Lanham, MD, USA            | Tablet and Inkle bands, and other stuff
                          | http://whitewolfandphoenix.com