Hypersonic Sled Travels at 6,599 mph - Secret Test Site

In the middle of the night in the New Mexico desert, a strange object moves far beyond the threshold of hypersonic speeds, rocketing along a 10-mile track in mere seconds.

While hard to make out even at half the speed, the item seen in the unique footage is a sled, part of the United States Air Force's latest developments in defense technology.

The secretive tests, carried out in recent years and even breaking a few world records, have left even the most clever web sleuths pondering what the technology behind the experiments could be.

With Pentagon officials racing to get their hands on any kind of hypersonic weapons, it is unquestionable that the tests in the footage are no coincidence and even part of a much bigger endeavor…

[kegginstructure]

Believe it or not, "Murphy's Law" started in that exact area, again due to a rocket-sled experiment. A test subject experienced a 9-G acceleration but the team got no data because the connector had been inserted into its slot upside down. One of the team's engineers, Ed Murphy coined his now-famous law, "Whatever can go wrong WILL go wrong." But nobody ever recalls the OTHER half of his law... "so make it impossible for things to go wrong." That team and that incident was the origin of asymmetrically shaped plugs and connectors so that you no longer CAN insert a plug upside down.

[sandybennett_itsme]

If you've ever in the area to visit White Sands National Monument, get a room in Alamogordo and after dark drive HWY 82 towards Cloudcroft. Stop at the first viewing area on the left, pull off just before the tunnel and you'll be able to park and look out across the valley to see any sled runs they may have that night. There used to be those pay binoculars you could look thru for a quarter but just bring your own.

[Oops_My_Dood]

How in the hell do those roller bearings not spontaneously combust at those speeds? Unless this is a MagLift kinda thing???

[greg_does_stuff]

I remember seeing something like this about 30 years ago. It was footage of an guy in his mid 30's going nearly that fast on a sled he coated with a new non-caloric silicone based kitchen lubricant. (I believe it was 500 times more slippery than any cooking oil.) His preliminary test was mostly successful however he forgot to take into account how to properly reduce the speed of his decent down the mountain.

[michaelgideon]

I built a test article that went down one of the tracks. Even though this is probably the smoothest set of rails in the world, the normal deviations create 20-50 G vertical shocks that you have to account for in the design. Ask me how I know. Actually, it wasn't my test article that failed, it was the sled itself. The test engineers showed us some of the debris left over. It was amazing.

[fuzzybutkus]

Imagine a new truck driver trying to cross those tracks.”Yeah Boss I looked both ways.”😂😂😂

[daviddeam]

The sled doesn't use bearings, it uses ablative shoes that are similar to brake shoes. The super high-speed track is a monorail. My hardware ran down the track at 3 miles/second in the early 80's (SDI missile LT Vought's "SRHIT" and later Loral Vought's "ERINT" which is todays Patriot PAC-3). Rocket and weapons tech has evolved a bit since then.

[deltonlomatai]

No air friction degradation, no significant metal or material overheating to cause the rocket or sled to be destroyed. That is some good material science.

[purplecreamband]

I slowed down the footage and I saw the clown Ronald Macdonald strapped to the front screaming his head off

[My-Pal-Hal]

I COULD HAVE GONE FASTER, ..
BUT I HAD MY SLED ON THE BRAKES 😂
... what happened to my passenger 🙄

[edwardanderson]

Growing up in Alamogordo;my dad took me out to watch the 'sled' twice. His company had equipment for rockets to be tested for massive Gs on takeoff. Watching at about 1/2 way when you heard the engine ignite you turned your head as fast as you can and you mightget a slight glimpse. The Air Force once straped a captain to it. He handled the takeoff good ;the decelleration really did a job on him. This was in the 1960s. Bet the new engines are really fast.

[hermanmunster]

Hell, if you think that's fast, you should see how fast the wife spends money..!

[teebosaurusyou]

The pictures showing the shock waves are SO DAMN COOL!

[christainmarks]

Clark W. Griswold did this 30years ago while snow sledding with his family.

[kwgm]

This track and a rocket powered sled was featured in Popular Mechanics articles during the 1960's. I remember reading about its contribution to the X-15 project, and also when doing research into ejection seats for supersonic jets. At one time they strapped test pilots in the seat until they started showing symptoms from the severe head shock of delta g -- racoon-like periorbital hematoma (black eyes) and severe subconjunctival hemorrhage (red eyeballs.) I wonder if these brave men suffered from traumatic brain injury later in life. Our helmets are good at protecting the scull from fracture, but I'm aware of no device or appliance that can protect soft brain tissue from traumatic injury when it slams against the inside of the skull at high speed and at high inertial force.

We, and all mammals, have evolved a tough fluid-filled brain sac that cushions us from falls, but man has not been traveling at high speed for very long, in evolutionary time, to develop structures and functions to protect the brain from rapid deceleration at high speed. Formula 1 drivers are trained to physically withstand the forces involved with 100 meters/sec (~ 225 mph) speed with neck and upper chest muscle development.

Military fighter pilots train physically to develop these muscles and use forced breathing techniques to prevent blackout in high-g turns. US Air Force F-22 Raptor pilots have pneumatic flight suits that work with sensors and high pressure air supplied by fighter plane to help pump blood from the lower extremities to the upper body where it is more easily oxygenated and available to the brain. This helps them withstand the 9-g turns their vectored thrust can execute. But I know of no device or appliance that will protect the brain from fast deceleration when traveling above Mach 5.

[MarcPiery]

That test track was shown in a mid 1950s movie called Toward the Unknown. It showed a sled that was supposed to be testing an advanced seat ejection system, but if you look at the vehicle, it’s nearly identical to the front section of the Space Shuttle used in the 1980s. My guess? It was being tested way back then.

[MrBcuzbcuz]

6, 400 feet per second is NOT 6, 599 mph. It is considerably less.

[zwastiunburzy]

Did he just say, "Something more subtle is needed"? I wouldn't call 6599mph "subtle"!

[francisdavis]

My former employer was Talley Defense systems which supported aircrew egress systems (ejection) as well as submunition dispersal. The former work was done at Hurricanes Mesa with Stencil during the 1960's but submunition work was started at Hollman. Submunitions development in the 1970's and 1980's was done to respond to stopping the Soviet armor threat which had a doctrine of being in Paris in three days. We also had "toys" fir cratering Warsaw Pact runways. Very busy time. Later in the Gulf War we received a Navy battle flag for the performance of 27 BGM-109 with subminitions for radar, communications and SAM sites. The Mach numbers were more benign than the monster featured here. We used our automotive airbag inflators to inflate a ballute in one demonstration. The high Mach environment is difficult to disperse witin... My last entertainment was with JPL with an reentry aeroshell as a demo for Mars. Talley was a great place to work.

[danielhowell]

That's no sled, that's me running to the toilet after about 4 Chalupas & a Mexican pizza.