Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of, relating to, or capable of speed equal to or exceeding five times the speed of sound.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Aeronautics) Pertaining to or moving at a speed greatly in excess of the speed of sound, usually meaning greater than mach 5. All speeds in excess of the speed of sound are supersonic, but to be hypersonic requires even higher speed.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective of a speed, aviation equal to, or greater than, or capable of achieving, five times the speed of sound.
  • adjective of a speed, aeronautics far enough above the speed of sound so as to cause significant differences in behaviour due to chemical reactions or disassociation of the air.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

hyper- +‎ sonic

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Examples

  • The tool kit is standard NOW, however the repairs have never been testing in hypersonic flight, then may cause more drag and local to the repair.

    Minor Damage Seen on Atlantis - NASA Watch 2009

  • Hammer invented a device called the hypersonic scan transmitter, which allowed him to take control of Iron Man’s armor.

    Mickey Rourke AND Sam Rockwell playing villains in IRON MAN 2? | Obsessed With Film 2009

  • Either they don’t have enough cone explosives or they don’t trust them to do the job, because they have placed something called hypersonic cavitation generators in the tents.

    State of fear Crichton, Michael, 1942- 2004

  • Until now air travel at "hypersonic" speed was the stuff of science fiction.

    NEWS.com.au | Top Stories 2010

  • Hypersonic flight test in the outback THE dream of flying from Australia to Europe in three hours has taken another step toward reality with the second "hypersonic" flight in the outback.

    NEWS.com.au | Top Stories 2010

  • The military might need a "hypersonic" weapon that would travel in the exoatmosphere to take out a limited number of fleeting targets, he said.

    Marine Corps Times - News 2009

  • The military might need a "hypersonic" weapon that would travel in the exoatmosphere to take out a limited number of fleeting targets, he said.

    Air Force Times - News 2009

  • India and Russia have begun some work on a "hypersonic" BrahMos-2 missile capable of Mach 5-7 speed, while two Indian Sukhoi-30MKI fighters are being retro-fitted with BrahMos 'air-launched version.

    Asia Times Online 2009

  • Today's experimental scramjets are not merely supersonic - meaning they fly faster than the speed of sound, or Mach 1 - but hypersonic, meaning they fly at Mach 5 or faster.

    Space News From SpaceDaily.Com 2009

  • Dr. Regina Dugan, director of the Defense Advance Research Projects Agency, spoke at D9 on her program's ongoing efforts to reach homomorphic encryption and hypersonic speed, and opened a window into the techiest part of the U.S. Defense Department.

    Defense on the Offense 2011

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