TOKYO, Japan (AP) -- Japan's space agency plans to launch an arrow-shaped airplane at twice the speed of sound high over the Australian outback as early as next month in a crucial test of the country's push to develop a supersonic successor to the retired Concorde.
The test follows a three-year hiatus since the first experimental flight of the unmanned aircraft, dubbed the next-generation supersonic transport, prematurely separated from its booster rocket and crashed into the desert.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/space/0....ap/index.html
http://www.strangemilitary.com/content/item/5375.html
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sources say the flight will still be cheaper than an Internext Pass