Posted on 06/30/2015 1:54:10 PM PDT by Red Badger
The U.S. military is reportedly developing a hypersonic jet plane that could soar at up to five times the speed of sound — faster than a bullet, which generally travels at Mach 2, or twice the speed of sound.
The new hypersonic vehicle, which could take flight by 2023, builds upon research from a 2013 test flight of an experimental hypersonic vehicle, the X-51A Waverider, according to Military.com.
The $300 million X-51A program began in 2004. The program's final test flight occurred May 1, 2013, when the unmanned Waverider reached a top speed of Mach 5.1 (more than five times the speed of sound) in just over six minutes, before it was intentionally crashed into the Pacific Ocean. At the time, U.S. Air Force officials said the flight was the longest-ever for a hypersonic vehicle of its kind. [Flying Saucers to Mind Control: 7 Declassified Military & CIA Secrets]
During the 2013 test flight, the hypersonic jet was released from a B-52H Stratofortress at an altitude of 50,000 feet (15,000 meters). After separation, the Waverider accelerated to Mach 4.8 in just 26 seconds, powered by a solid rocket booster. The hypersonic jet separated from the rocket at an altitude of 60,000 feet (18,300 m), eventually reaching Mach 5.1 with its air-breathing supersonic combustion ramjet (or scramjet) engine.
"X-51 was really a proof of concept test. It showed that you could get a scram jet engine, launch it off an aircraft and it could go hypersonic," Mica Endsley, the Air Force's chief scientist, told Military.com. "It was able to go more than Mach 5 until it ran out of fuel. It was a very successful test of an airborne hypersonic weapons system."
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
Hopefully not like Goldfinger firing a gun in his plane.
The projectile would start at the speed of the plane and go from there.............
IIRC, the experimental flights have at best been only a second or so in duration. Never read if it was verified that the Scramjet had fired and produced thrust. It mostly crashes.
The Chinese are reading the plans for it right now.
Mach 5 is closer to 4,000 mph... that's nothing to sneeze at given the forces acting on the surfaces and the friction on the skin. What's unique here is that they were testing a SCRAMjet which essentially uses the shockwave of the air for super compression and then ignite. It's a RAMjet on steroids. Theoretically, it could reach speeds up to Mach 25 with enough fuel.
By contrast, the SR-71's turbo-ramjets used the cone on the front of the engine to bifurcate the shockwave and prevent it from getting inside the engine where forces would have reeked havoc on the fan blades. At speeds above Mach 3, 58% of its thrust could be from the pressure of the shockwave in the nacelles. Most of the operation of the SR-71 engines happen at subsonic air speeds.
Uninterceptable cruise missile.
It would be faster than the usual air defense SAMs (like S300 or Patriot) and AAMs.
You would need something approaching the performance of an ABM capable SAM, but those are designed for ballistic missile intercepts. This ramjet cruise missile would be a maneuvering target.
... briefly. Without a SCRAMjet of its own, it won't get far.
Then use lasers..................
A better weapon would be one where we deliberately crashed the Democrat Party into the ocean.
Our very own freeper wrote the book on Hypersonics.
They called us Naspeteers.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3106539/posts?page=1
Recently read a book about the X and was shocked to read that they were doing SCRAM tests way back then with a test fixture mounted on the lower tail fin or whatever it is called and was jettisoned just before landing.
Ahh yes, the one and only “Powerful Mach 5”
No need. They are the party behind the stars and bars, slavery, the KKK, etc. They are responsible for for that flag and everything that went with it. They are a reminder to all of slavery and racism, so like their proposal for the battle flag, their party needs to be banned, shut down, outlawed.
A national movement to accomplish this should be promoted.
There was this sort of functional fan made model at Dragoncon back in 2011 which I think was the last one I went to.
https://youtu.be/_qR9JfUcToM?t=1m21s
About 3700 mph.
if circling the earth (and assuming constant supply of fuel) it’s about 6.5 hours
OTOH, The average distance to Mars is about 130 million miles. I think that’s about 4 years.
I thought the hypersonic jet ‘drop tests’ were failures.
The fastest X-15 flight really cooked; the aircraft achieved a maximum speed of 4,519mph.
LOL!! I used to watch that show!
Automan: “Green, please?” (To traffic light while driving vehicle on street)
Sensuous female voice as traffic light: “Anything for you, Automan.”
Even a failure will bring knowledge. Edison failed at making a lightbulb many times..........
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