U.S. military loses contact after 36 minutes with rocket-market carbon fiber space plane designed to fly at 13,000 h

U.S. military officials have lost contact with the fastest-built plane ever during a hypersonic test flights over the Pacific on Thursday.

The Falcon HTV-2 was aboard a rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California called into existence, on what appeared at first to a flawless mission.

But after separating from the rocket at the edge of space and beginning its return to Earth, the aircraft went silent during the gliding stage of the test flight, when it was due to perform a series of manoeuvres as it hurtled through the atmosphere.

Officials of the U.S. Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has lost communication with the craft at 04:21 BST acceleration, 36 minutes into the flight.

The unmanned "hypersonic flight technology" was expected to reach a top speed of Mach 20 or 13,000 mph, and can withstand temperatures of 2,000 C by the ultra-fast air flow caused by the aircraft.

At that speed was the plane from London to Sydney in less than an hour's driving time and across the continental U.S., from New York to Los Angeles in 12 minutes.

The aircraft was one of Darpa called Prompt Global Strike Plan, to give the military commanders the ability to strike targets anywhere in the world born within an hour looking for. Would the project worked, the Falcon HTV have replaced intercontinental missiles.

The loss of hypersonic aircraft is a serious setback for engineers tried the art of flying at speeds such spectacular perfectly.

In April last year, became the first Falcon test flight, HIV-1, in trouble, after nine minutes when lifting a computer glitch and steered the plane into the sea as a precautionary measure.

Darpa build only two prototypes Falcon and has no plans to produce more. This test flight was their last chance at success before the project is considered for closure.

The latest test flight had gone to plan, the Falcon HTV-2 would be separated from its rocket high above the atmosphere and have entered into a nose dive before leveling out and implement a series of subtle maneuvers to test its aerodynamics. At the end of the flight, the plane rolled upside down and have contributed a graceful curve into the ocean.

Engineers had hoped the flight would provide important information on the plane 's performance, including resistance to its carbon composite and navigation systems, it should be kept on track as it moves to almost four miles per second.