Long skinny delta wings and a crazy long witch's hat nose. Better let the computer land this one.
Posted on 02/26/2017 9:54:49 PM PST by BenLurkin
Cleveland OH (SPX) The agency is testing a nine percent scale model of Lockheed Martin's X-plane design in Glenn's 8' x 6' Supersonic Wind Tunnel. During the next eight weeks, engineers will expose the model to wind speeds ranging from Mach 0.3 to Mach 1.6 (approximately 150 to 950 mph) to understand the aerodynamics of the X-plane design as well as aspects of the propulsion system. NASA expects the QueSST X-plane to pave the way for supersonic flight over land in the not too distant future.
"We'll be measuring the lift, drag and side forces on the model at different angles of attack to verify that it performs as expected," said aerospace engineer Ray Castner, who leads propulsion testing for NASA's QueSST effort. "We also want to make sure the air flows smoothly into the engine under all operating conditions."
(Excerpt) Read more at spacedaily.com ...
Of course, all that horsepower heats the air in the closed-loop system up pretty fast, so they need a cooling section that can remove all that thermal energy. The cooling unit is refrigerated, which requires another massive set of motors to drive.
Total power consumption at full speed is about 200 MW. At five cents per kw-hr, that's $10,000/hour, or $166/min. Just for electricity.
Interesting.
Long skinny delta wings and a crazy long witch's hat nose. Better let the computer land this one.
What does this have to do with Muslim Outreach?
Emperor for Life Obama will be displeased!
I was project historian for the X-30 aerospace plane, 1988-96, and we needed soeeds way above what any wind tunnel could produce just to test it. So one concept was that we had to build the whole plane as a test. Parts were successful (computaional fluid dynamics, hydrogen fuel, advanced materials) but the scramjet lagged and the program was canceled 20 years ago.
I was project historian for the X-30 aerospace plane, 1988-96, and we needed soeeds way above what any wind tunnel could produce just to test it. So one concept was that we had to build the whole plane as a test. Parts were successful (computaional fluid dynamics, hydrogen fuel, advanced materials) but the scramjet lagged and the program was canceled 20 years ago.
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