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Weight Penalty:

Sept. 26, 2006

Audio of this article is brought to you by the Air & Space Forces Association, honoring and supporting our Airmen, Guardians, and their families. Find out more at afa.org

Setting aside hypersonic flight, Boeing’s Darryl Davis says a supersonic platform is well within the realm of the possible by 2018. However, a supersonic, intercontinental platform would probably weigh two to 2.5 times as much as a subsonic platform, Davis noted. In aircraft, weight usually equates to cost. Davis said Boeing is looking at hybrid concepts of motherships and drones, or standoff sensors coupled with passive penetrators.

Audio of this article is brought to you by the Air & Space Forces Association, honoring and supporting our Airmen, Guardians, and their families. Find out more at afa.org

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