Posted on 10/03/2004 9:18:54 AM PDT by BenLurkin
EDWARDS AFB - NASA aeronautics researchers are looking forward to flying the X-43A research aircraft at speeds up to 10 times the speed of sound later this fall, following a successful "captive carry" dress rehearsal flight from NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center on Monday. According to X-43A lead operations engineer David McAllister, who served as test director for the mission, the captive carry flight duplicated all operational functions of the planned 7,000-mph - or Mach 10 - flight and served as a training exercise for staff, except that the X-43A and its modified Pegasus booster were not released from NASA's B-52B launch aircraft and their engines were not ignited. "We have two primary purposes for doing a captive carry flight," McAllister said. "The first is to make sure that the X-43 and its booster rocket - two highly complex systems - are ready for flight. The second is to make sure we're well trained. It's a very big operation (and) we want to make sure that all those people and all those systems are ready to go."
The X-43A is powered by a revolutionary air-breathing supersonic-combustion ramjet - or "scramjet" - engine. Scramjet engines could enable future hypersonic aircraft or space-access vehicles to either carry a greater payload, or be smaller and lighter, since they would not have to carry large oxidizer tanks as present-day launch rockets do. If successful, the Mach 10 flight will break all speed records for an aircraft powered by an air-breathing engine. After a review of captive-carry flight data, project engineers are expected to set a tentative date for the final X-43A flight for early November.
X-43A ping
Dang. Mach 10. What must the friction be like at that speed?
I dont know, but I wouldnt roll down the window and stick my hand out.
Excellent posts.
Thank you!
You're welcome!
At mach 10 the damned air would just about qualify as a solid!
I wonder what speed this thing can hit at sea level?
Where it will be doing mach 10 there is very damn little air.
It will be at the upper reaches of the atmosphere.
I can't imagine anyone would want to ride the X-43 when it is scaled up, not anytime soon. It might make a heck of a weapon, though.
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