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Defense & Security · Recorded milestone

Hypersonic glide vehicle

Recorded year2019

Manoeuvring warheads fly at more than five times the speed of sound.

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Built on

Stored-program computerRecorded · 1948requires
ICBMRecorded · 1957enables
Carbon-fibre compositesRecorded · 1963enables
MicroprocessorRecorded · 1971requires

Led to

Space-based missile defenceForecast · ~2035enables
Hypersonic airlinersForecast · ~2062enables

Sources & evidence

Additional source

Dataset updated 2026-10-18. This individual record has not been separately re-reviewed.