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detonate the air in front of the wing, and surf the shockwave. This research happened in California by any chance?

Apologies if its addressed and i just missed it in the article; but doesn't this seem energy hungry? Like "what power source can we make fly that can do this output?"

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It’s not as energy hungry as you might think because there’s a significant energy input due to the shockwave shedding thermal radiation and hot gas/plasma from its “inside” edge. The clever thing here is controlling the inside edge of the shock front as opposed to just letting it form as it would normally do and by controlling it to shift the shock front away from the airframe to reduce drag.

>Like "what power source can we make fly that can do this output?"

How about actively reacting fissile material? I suppose there wouldn’t be much difference if the thing were already carrying a warhead.

Or maybe create the tip of the vehicle out of magnesium and ignite it immediately before launch.

Might as well use a nuclear salt water rocket - but with smaller nozzle also in the front! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_salt-water_rocket

That would make everything even more insanely radioactive. :)

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