Comments by "Tony Wilson" (@tonywilson4713) on "Hypersonic Missile How it Works | Mig 31 Kinzhal Launch Process" video.

  1. AEROSPACE ENGINEER HERE: I like your vids they are pretty informative but there is a huge mistake in this and its being repeated EVERYWHERE. Hypersonic missiles DO NOT zig zag anything like what you have shown here and others also keep showing similar. Simply put at those speeds nothing can manoeuvre like that. First off the control surfaces just aren't large enough and second if you tired it would simply rip the missile apart because of the lateral G-forces. Regarding Hypersonics there's a lot of hype and this one of the main hype subjects. The main reason people want these missiles to go that fast is to give any defensive system less time to react. You might not be old enough to remember the Falklands war but the British ships had the SeaDart and Seacat missiles which could hit artillery shells out of the sky. I remember the Brits showing footage of these systems as their fleet sailed South. It didn't stop them losing 2 Frigates and 2 Destroyers because they just could not lock onto the sea skimming Exocets. The Russians found out similar last year when despite the CIWS systems on the Moskva failed to shoot down the Neptune missiles the Ukrainians fired. The manoeuvring issue for hypersonic missiles was demonstrated recently when Kinzhals were intercepted by Patriot missile systems. Although details are sketchy my bet would be the patriots burst ahead of the Kinzhals and the Kinzhals just ripped themselves apart when they hit the flack cloud. Go look up the Rheinmetall Oerlikon Millennium Gun using AHEAD ammunition does. This all comes back to one thing. If you can detect an incoming missile or artillery shell EARLY ENOUGH you can respond otherwise it doesn't matter how fast its going. Also when you go and look at the X-43 Hyper-X and X-51 Waverider programs they cost more like $75 and $85 million per launch but they were experimental/development programs. I think you'll find that hypersonics will be more hype than hypersonic for some time to come. If you want to discuss the inherent issue with SCRAMJETS and why despite decades of research they still aren't in common use then let me know.
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