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What are hypersonic speeds?

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Recently, intense research has gone into the development of planes that can fly at hypersonic speeds, approximately five times or more than the speed of sound. At these speeds the properties of air change radically, especially the rapid increase in temperature (to as much as 2,000¡F/1,080¡C) associated with the air flowing at such speeds along a plane's surface. There appears to exist an aerodynamic thermal barrier similar to the sound barrier confronted fifty years ago.

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