There are a lot of references to speed and going fast in our culture, especially in video games, cartoons, and movies. Sonic the Hedgehog can run at supersonic speeds. Speed Racer is busy revvin’ up the powerful Mach 5. And in this summer’s hit movie Top Gun: Maverick, Tom Cruise flies the Darkstar hypersonic plane to “Mach 10”.

Ever wonder just how fast Mach 10 is?

To find out, we talked to Aaron Cassebeer, the senior director of engineering at Stratolaunch. His team is building a real-life hypersonic aircraft called Talon-A, designed to fly through the sky at Mach 6, or six times the speed of sound! That’s more than 3,000 miles per hour. It’s a cool piece of technology with some really challenging problems that pop up when you try flying that fast.

Learn more about Stratolaunch’s vehicles by watching these videos of Talon-A and the Roc Carrier Aircraft.

Have a question you've been wondering about? Send an email or voice recording to everwonder@californiasciencecenter.org to tell us what you'd like to hear in future episodes.

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