Dark Footage
3 HN recommenders · recommended in 4 months, 2021–2024
6:00 · 459K views · Nov 2, 2020
A short video on the US Sprint anti-ballistic missile, which accelerated to around Mach 10 in seconds under extreme g-forces and heat. It includes striking launch footage and a brief development history.
Shared in hypersonic and missile threads as a compact, impressive overview of what Sprint achieved in the 1960s.
4 comments from Hacker News
You beat me to it! This timecoded link shows the launch sequence of the Sprint with a tracking shot of the vehicle itself. Pretty remarkable watching it start to glow white: this video I think this is the first video on that channel where the subject can match the guy's cadence. It's a great overview of the development of the Sprint though, worth watching if it's of interest.
On the subject of impressive old missile footage, I recommend the Nike-X program's Sprint interceptor-missile. Not hot glowing plasma on re-entry, but instead going up . As a short-range interceptor, Sprints were slammed up out of their silos via an explosively-driven piston, then they would ignite and reorient in midair, accelerating at 100g to reach Mach 10. The missile itself couldn't see very much, but would be remotely guided with strong signals from the launch installation. [LINK] [LINK] this video
Cool video of the (hypersonic) Sprint anti-ballistic missile, designed to intercept incoming ICBMs once they get below the ionosphere and are more visible to radar: this video It looks fake. I'm bummed I'll likely never see something like that in person...at least in a test.
Here's a 6 minute video explaining the sprint missile for those unaware and interested (rather fascinating technology for the 70s) this video