Posted on 11/16/2004 3:28:29 PM PST by O.C. - Old Cracker
LOS ANGELES (AP) - An unmanned NASA jet was launched over the Pacific Ocean on Tuesday in a bid to demonstrate a radical new engine technology by flying at a world-record 7,000 mph - almost 10 times the speed of sound.
The 12-foot-long X-43A "scramjet" was carried aloft under the wing of a B-52 aircraft and released over a test range off the Southern California coast. It was to fly under its own power at Mach 10 for about 10 seconds at 110,000 feet, then glide to a splash landing. The craft was designed to sink and will not be recovered.
Unlike rockets, scramjets do not have to carry heavy oxidizer necessary to burn fuel. Instead, they can scoop oxygen out of the atmosphere.
Scramjet technology could be used to develop hypersonic missiles and airplanes or reusable space launch vehicles, with a potential for speeds of at least Mach 15.
The first X-43A flight failed in 2001 when the booster rocket veered off course and had to be destroyed. The second X-43A flew in March and reached Mach 6.83, or nearly 5,000 mph, a record for an aircraft powered by an air-breathing engine.
Guys went Mach 6+, almost Mach 7 in the X-15, and astronauts go faster to achieve escape velocity. What can harm a person is not speed per se, but sudden acceleration or deceleration. For instance, SpaceShipOne and some tank cannon projectiles both do between Mach 3 and Mach 4. Accelerating like SpaceShipOne doesn't harm people. Accelerating like a tank round would turn people to jelly!
Absent a sudden onset, there's no physiological limitation to how fast you can go (inside something, obviously).
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
Interesting.
In the words of Curtis LeMay, upon seeing a diagram of the X-15: "Where's the bomb bay?"
George Wallace's old running mate? That LeMay?
The one and only. The story goes that NASA went looking for funding for the X-15, but found none. In desperation, they went to the (then) commander of SAC, Curtis LeMay. The old man chomped his cigar and delivered his famous line.
That's hilarious.
No, it was the other LeMay - the one who insisted on flying missions over Germany with his crews.
My question was meant to be derisive of General LeMay. I voted for Wallace and LeMay when they ran as Independents in 1968.
SS-N-23 (SKIFF)
SS-25 (SICKLE)
SS-19 (STILLETO)
There was no SS-27 launched. The SS-27 is the TOPOL-M. The SS-25 is the TOPOL (NATO CODENAME SICKLE)
The reason why it was an SS-19 STILLETO that launched the hypersonic vehicle is due to the specific conditions of the START I protocol. The Russians announced to the west that ICBM/SLBM would be launched and that one of those would be carrying a hypersonic research vehicle. The first missile to be launched under the protocol was the SS-19 STILLETO from Tyuratum. The Russians provided no impact areas on the Kamchatka peninsula for this test because the purpose of the missile was to boost the hypersonic research vehicle. The missile only flew a partial ballistic trajectory and then the scramjet powered hypersonic vehicle detached to conduct its mission. The second missile to launch was the SS-N-23 (SKIFF) from the DELTA-IV which impacted on the Kamchatka peninsula. The third missile to launch was the SS-25 (SICKLE from Plesetsk which also impacted on the Kamchatka peninsula as per treaty conditions. As to the type of hypersonic vehicle the SS-19 was carrying it was more than likely an IGLA or derivative:
"Igla RSA also is pursuing the Igla vehicle, an integrated engine/airframe concept similar to the US Hyper-X that employs a hydrogen scramjet. The vehicle is 5m/16.4ft in length and designed for mach 5-14 speeds. It is to be boosted to speed by launch aboard an SS-18 or SS-19 ICBM. A date has not yet been set for an Igla test flight"
"FIRST FLIGHT OF IGLA HYPERSONIC AIRCRAFT SCHEDULED FOR 2004
According to the representatives of the Central Institute of Aircraft Engine Building (TsIAM), the first flight of the Igla hypersonic aircraft, currently under development in Russia is scheduled for the year 2004. The Igla is designed to carry out research and testing of a scramjet. This engine runs on liquid hydrogen and is planned to power the future advanced space passenger-carrying and military aircraft. These aircraft will offer several times lower specific cost of putting payloads into orbit. Presently, this cost makes up US$ 8-30,000.
The Voronezh Khimavtomatika Design Bureau has already produced a single scramjet which is planned to be used for flight tests at M=6.5
TsIAM plans to demonstrate a full-scale mockup of the Igla at the MAKS-99 Air Show in Zhukovsky (Moscow region).
In the words of the representative of the institute, all the previous works on the scramjet have been carried out both with domestic (the Russian Space Agency) and foreign customers: France, USA. In the framework of this programme, a US$ 2 million contract has been signed with "a number of the US governmental organisations".
However, the Igla programme may be implemented only in case adequate financing is provided, the representative stressed. The project cost is about 1 billion roubles (US$ 40 million). As far as there is no such money in the Russian budget, the scramjet developers are planning to attract additional, possibly foreign investments. The US plans to spend US$ over 100 million on similar programme."
The plans to launch the HGV from an SS-19 were even released in open source many years ago:
"The Mashinostroenie NPO showed, in addition to its Almaz program, its Strela mini-launcher project and Igla experimental hypersonic vehicle. Like the Rockot, the Strela rocket is a derivative of the UR-100N (alias SS-19) missile. It is the subject of an agreement with Khrunichev. Launched from a Baykonur or Plessetsk silo, it can place payloads of 1.2 mt to 1.8 mt in circular orbits at 300 to 1,100 km, inclined at 63[DEG]. The Igla demonstrator is part of the Oriol national program devoted to the study of hypersonic flight. Weighing 2 mt, it is to be launched by the SS-19 missile over a suborbital trajectory. TsIAM's [Central Institute of Aviation Engine Building] liquid hydrogen scramjet is designed to operate from Mach 6 to Mach 14 at an altitude of 45 km “
A paper on the IGLA:
Two more clues in open source to the fact that the SS-19 was the HGV carrier:
ITAR-TASS quoted Putin as saying that the SS-19 missile launched at Baikonur "has no competition" when it comes to breaking through potential defense mechanisms."We are talking about a very dangerous weapon with serious potential," Putin said.
A spokesman for the Strategic Missile Troops, Lieutenant Colonel Vadim Koval, said the SS-19 launch "resolved a number of experimental tasks applicable to ground-based strategic missile systems."
Your one link is nine years old, being published in 1995.
I continue to see multiple newstories saying that the ICBM was the TOPOL-M (redesignated the SS-27 from the SS-25, since it is modified).
In fact, your link to the old FAS article is interesting in that it was FAS I quoted who stated it was the SS-25 modified, not the SS-19.
This 2004 article I quote below stated that both the SS-19 and the SS-25 TOPOL-M were both launched on the same day, but that it was the TOPOL that used the scramjet technology, not the SS-19.
START EXCERPT:
2/18/2004: TOPOL, SS-19 TESTED DURING EXERCISE
As part of the Security 2004 command and staff training exercise, the Strategic Rocket Forces, together with the Space Forces, undertook two launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). Both launches, one from the Plesetsk Test Site in Arkhangelsk Oblast and one from the Baykonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, proved successful. The RT-2PM Topol [NATO designation SS-25 'Sickle'] ICBM propelled from a mobile launcher at Plesetsk and the UR-100NUTTKh [NATO designation SS-19 'Stiletto'] ICBM launched from Baykonur destroyed their targets at the Kura testing ground on the Kamchatka Peninsula.[1] The launch of the Topol was notable for its use of a new experimental defense-penetrating warhead, while the SS-19 tested the ability of the military to conduct remote launches.[2,3]
Again it was an SS-25 (SICKLE) that was test launched under START conditions. The TOPOL-M is the SS-27. The TOPOL is the SS-25. No SS-27 was launched. The NTI is a discussion group link and not an official START mouthpiece or anything to do with it. The Russians are coy to the system that launched the HGV and the press have ran with what they think it was. This media hype even led to them stating it was a TOPOL-M launch.
You do realise that an RC-135 was off the coast during the window of the launches announced by the Russians? The telemetry is all open and collected under treaty conditions by the RC-135. The media speculation was completely incorrect on the launch platform used.
"Great. Some private guys just made it to space in a hang glider and NASA wants to demonstrate their competence by shooting missiles into the ocean. Send them another $100 billion!"
In the development of this scramjet engine the US is way out in front on an otherwise unknown technology.
It will lead to fractional orbit craft and finally runway-to-orbit spacecraft.
The private sub-orbital craft are great, but they have only a third of the speed of the NASA scramjet, and about seventh of the speed needed for orbit.
All the major aerospace contracting companies are free at any time to get investors and pursue the space plane or runway-to-orbit technology. Nothing is stopping them.
That's the way capitalism works.
Orbital Sciences made the Pegasus 4 stage rocket (with private funding), launched from an aircraft to put satellites in orbit.
What you are suggesting is happening now.
NASA is not preventing private development.
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