  Hypersonic flight, generally defined as the region in which the speed of a
vehicle exceeds Mach 5 and in which thermal loads become dominant, has seen
more attention over the past several decades due to the potential military
applications of such vehicles. Vehicles capable of flight at these speeds,
whilst seemingly a novel prospect, have been in development for more than 70
years. The nature of flight in this environment as well as the new challenges
it introduces have led to relatively high failure rates. This paper presents a
review of hypersonic vehicle flights that have resulted in failure from
conception to modern day with the purpose of identifying trends to aid and
guide the development of future vehicles. The collected data is used to
formulate a failure taxonomy to accurately identify and classify past
hypersonic vehicle failures as well as potential future ones. The trends and
features of the categorical data collected are explored using an ex-post facto
study.
