[Nuke]

its sad that were poised for world dominion yet we have no ambition for it. if ever theres gonna be a world government, rest assured that it will be made such through war and not through peace. and dont you just want it to be our government?

[NGTM-1R]

It crashed. Hypersonic flight has a way to go yet.

[StarSlayer]

It crashed. Hypersonic flight has a way to go yet.

Maybe they should have demoed it on KSP first.

[NGTM-1R]

Maybe they should have demoed it on KSP first.

To be fair, it was always going to hit the water, it just did so earlier than planned. They got nine minutes of good data out of it apparently.

[Unknown Target]

Do you have a concrete source for that A/C figure, UT?  It sounds an awful lot like one of those "$5000 toilets!" sort of things.

I was thinking to myself it was also an interesting comment how no one seemed to blink an eye at that claim; has our military become so massive that a claim about it's spending such as the one I made, doesn't raise an eyebrow of incredulity?

That being said, here you go
http://gizmodo.com/5813257/air-conditioning-our-military-costs-more-than-nasas-entire-budget
Just Google "military air conditioning nasa" for some other sources.

LordPomposity, I know that we retired most all of our battleships (didn't we? I know they got pressed back into service during Gulf War I, are they officially done now?).

Too bad about the experiment. Still, aeronautics can be a pretty trial and error science, especially at the bleeding edge of things.

[Kosh]

Stuff like this should be done by NASA. :\

Something like this WAS done by NASA, but much like during the shuttle design process the military couldn't keep their paws off of it which lead to significant delays. If this project was allowed to run its course as the proof of concept it was intended to be everything would be farther along by now.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Aerospace_Plane

[NGTM-1R]

I know you have an axe to grind, but NASA launched their hypersonic flight testbed well before this and your commentary is without factual basis. (Did you even read the page you linked? It states the project came from a DARPA design and NASA developed and canceled it as impractical!)

Behold.

[Kosh]

I know you have an axe to grind, but NASA launched their hypersonic flight testbed well before this and your commentary is without factual basis. (Did you even read the page you linked? It states the project came from a DARPA design and NASA developed and canceled it as impractical!)

Behold.

No, first of all the X30 was supposed to be an unmanned proof of concept to advance the technology, but the military wanted a bomber straight away, which required massive redesigns in order to make it man rated. Behold

The Department of Defense wanted it to carry a crew of two and even a small payload. The demands of being a man-rated vehicle, with the instrumentation, environmental control system, and safety equipment, made X-30 larger, heavier, and more expensive than required for a technology demonstrator.

DARPA was involved from the get go, but they weren't the ones who were pushing unrealistic demands. The X51 you presented is actually a step behind the X30, and with the lessons learned from the X30 as it was meant to be the Air Force would have had their precious Falcon years ago. 

I'll also point out that in 1993 a number of things were cut because there were some serious all around budget cuts. Behold. All in all these cuts ended up causing some major setbacks to basic R&D in several areas. Practicality wasn't the leading determinant of what got cut. 

[Nuke]

Maybe they should have demoed it on KSP first.

To be fair, it was always going to hit the water, it just did so earlier than planned. They got nine minutes of good data out of it apparently.

this is the way testflights usually go. back in the olden days actual pilots flew these flying death traps, and many of them died. and all of them went into it knowing full well things could go wrong, but did it anyway just for the thrill of it. these days while im sure that there are still people willing to take huge personal risks to advance space technology, but the ones calling the shots dont have the balls to actually put people in those situations, and that i think is kinda sad. after all pilots can be grown in a brothel lab.

[Locutus of Borg]

I was wondering were my Goa'uld fighter went

[NGTM-1R]

No, first of all the X30 was supposed to be an unmanned proof of concept to advance the technology, but the military wanted a bomber straight away, which required massive redesigns in order to make it man rated.

Irrelevant. It was an unmanned proof of concept for a spaceplane airliner. Cancellation would have come anyways if it was unable to carry humans and payload.

[Thaeris]

after all pilots can be grown in a brothel lab.

You had it right the first time!

[Kosh]

No, first of all the X30 was supposed to be an unmanned proof of concept to advance the technology, but the military wanted a bomber straight away, which required massive redesigns in order to make it man rated.

Irrelevant. It was an unmanned proof of concept for a spaceplane airliner. Cancellation would have come anyways if it was unable to carry humans and payload.

Not if it met its original project requirements, so not irrelevant. The project would have ended after they have developed working prototypes as a success. That's why it was a tech demonstrator, and not intended for active service.

And I'd like you to explain why it would be important for an unmanned technology proof of concept to carry people.

[Woolie Wool]

I'm sure that people in the future would appreciate the capability to get to the other side of the world in less than 15 minutes.
First they'll build a bomber, then the technology might be adapted into civilian transport. If it can carry, say, a ton of bombs, why couldn't it be a ton of something else, after some design changes? Also, it's a major step towards Single Stage To Orbit spaceplanes, which may someday make space travel much more accessible.

Using a disposable rocket for this purpose is so unbelievably wasteful that the design used for the Falcon HTV-2 is useless except as bragging rights.