http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48153313.../#.UKEm04ZOmSo
The U.S. military aims to fly a full-scale rocket plane at 20 times the speed of sound by 2016, officials announced last week.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, laid out its plan to develop and test-fly the hypersonic vehicle in a press release issued Friday. The so-called X-plane would travel at Mach 20 ? roughly 13,000 mph (20,900 kph) ? allowing the military to reach any spot on the globe in less than an hour.
Further, the vehicle would be "recoverable," according to the release ? meaning the government could get it back.
To help make all this happen, DARPA has started up a new program called Integrated Hypersonics. IH will build off previous Defense Department research into ultra-fast flight but will need to make some major strides of its own, officials said.