Posted on 03/27/2009 2:42:22 PM PDT by BenLurkin
PALMDALE - The next step in hypersonic flight test is under development in a hangar at The Boeing Co.'s facility at Air Force Plant 42.
The unmanned X-51A "WaveRider" is a scramjet engine flight demonstrator, expected to provide flight test data at speeds beyond Mach 6 - about one mile per second - using its unique engine design.
In a scramjet - or supersonic combustion ramjet - engine, air is scooped into the engine duct, then forced through a combustion chamber, where fuel is mixed in and ignited. This produces energy, which is forced out the rear of the engine as thrust.
Scramjets have an advantage over conventional rocket and turbojet engines in that they are more efficient. These air-breathing engines do not have to carry oxidizers on board to mix with fuel, instead using oxygen from the air. For space launch purposes, this means lighter launch vehicles with more payload capacity.
Since the mid-1990s, a series of projects have been working toward creating an air-breathing hypersonic engine, one that could have applications ranging from lower-cost space access to high-speed transportation.
...
The laboratory is the government customer on the $246.5 million program, with a consortium of Boeing and Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne providing the vehicle and scramjet engine.
The program consists of four identical vehicles, all in various stages of assembly at the Boeing facility in Palmdale.
The first vehicle will be used for structural ground testing, before flying in the fourth and final flight test scheduled next year.
The X-51A vehicle, called the "cruiser," is essentially a flying engine. Intended as an engine test platform, it does not carry any payload other than the devices used to collect flight test data.
The aircraft looks somewhat like a flat wedge, with an elongated, squared-off nose over the engine inlet.
(Excerpt) Read more at avpress.com ...
Wow, I didn’t know turbojet engines carried oxidizers in order to work properly....
Gee, next time I fly, I'm gonna have to look under my seat or in the overhead for the LOX tank...
Thought there was an article on FR about a team that recently broke Mach 4 with diesel fuel.
Yeah, and not only that, they’re gonna have to pay us rather than charge us to fly on that thing.....
No wonder the planes are no smoking these days.
It looks even more cool in the air.
If they’re saying it’s “under development” it’s been operational for years and they’re taking it public because they’ve already got something better.
It is bad prose, isn’t it?
Well, there is that tank in the luggage rack up in the front.
Guess that’s why your bag will not inflate.
Can you imagine what would happen if pure oxygen were injected into a jet engine? How long do you suppose it would last before it melted or seized?
That would be something to see. I'm sure it was done way back in the day on the test platforms.
You know, you’re probably right. The guys who did the early testing on jet engines were a pretty swashbuckling breed.
Clearly written by a proseur.
What do you think those oxygen masks are attached to that drop down if cabin pressure drops? It’s a little known fact that when people suck on those things, engine fuel mixtures get rich.
cliff claven
LOL!
When I was a teenager, I hopped up a flat-heat 4 stroke briggs and stratton single cylinder motor with a reamed out fuel orifice and a small oxygen cylinder & hose running to the air cleaner. I melted the muffler off before the engine died.
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