This Air Force illustration depicts the X-51A Waverider scramjet vehicle during hypersonic flight during its May 26, 2010 test. Powered by a Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne SJY61 scramjet engine, it is designed to ride on its own shockwave and accelerate to about Mach 6. Credit: U.S. Air Force
Better the California’s Bullet Train?
So it’s fast then?
Looks like an old Black and Decker Dustbuster with fins all grown up .
And what would be the mission of such an aircraft? Is the USAF trying to build a new version of the B-70 Valkyrie?
When you think that the SR71 introduced in 1966, could fly 2200 mph, this does not sound as impressive.
Dr. Baronovich: “You must think in Russian.”
The X-51A Soars to New Heights
http://www.boeing.com/features/2013/05/bds-x51-05-03-13.page
Video of the 2013 test at the link
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, illegal aliens invade at 1/200th the speed of sound.
Big deal, the Space Shuttle is much faster I know this because CNN told me so.
Active Duty ping.
So if it fires a bullet or missile does it catch and pass it? 8^)
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.
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
I thought the hypersonic jet ‘drop tests’ were failures.
Been reading about this for 25 years.
You can bet China is in the process of building the same jet.
Here is a great technical publication on Hyperburners and the development of Hypersonics:
http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20050196667.pdf