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.
Teeny tiny! :-) LOL!
When the history of the Bush 43 presidency is written, this will be yet another superlative legacy of his.
Yeah. It's about the size of the B52's landing gear.
I am not sure this is true.
Russia has been screwing around with scramjet technology.
They have used the scramjet on a TOPOL (SS-25). Although this is a missile, the stubby wings of the X-43 versus the SS-25 is not a big difference.
If they are saying the X-43 is an aircraft and they do not count the TOPOL/scramjet as an aircraft, they might be technically correct.
But the fact is that Russia may actually hold the record for scramjet speed.
Yup lots of potential here!
Yup. Pushing the envelope of the "Vision Thing" by a craft with no windows, no less!
Anybody got stats on how far down-range it went?
Hasn't Aurora been exceeding this for years previous? Isn't NASA in the Area 51 loop? Will NASA license this engine to Burt Rutan?
The last X-43A vehicle has additional thermal protection for the Mach 10 flight, since it will experience heating roughly twice that of the Mach 7 vehicle. Reinforced carbon-carbon composite material has been added to the leading edges of the vehicle's vertical fins to handle the higher temperatures. For the Mach 10 flight, which equates to approximately 7,000 mph, the booster rocket will launch the X-43A to 110,000 feet before it separates and the X-43A operates its scramjet. The research vehicle will travel about 850 miles before splashing into the ocean. As with the previous X-43A vehicles, it will not be recovered.
2001 Flight and Investigation
The first X-43A flight attempt was in June 2001. Unfortunately, the booster failed and had to be destroyed early in flight. As a result, the research vehicle was not tested because it never reached test conditions. Although no single contributing factor was found, the root cause of the problem was identified as the booster's flight control system. The booster failed due to inaccurate design models that overestimated the capability of the flight control system to operate within predicted flight conditions.
Psst... It was a joke.
Besides the obvious scientific uses for this machine...
Picture if you will, say several thousand pounds of some really nasty stuff packed into the nose of that puppy... launched unmanned from Vandenberg, and flying at 15,000 miles per hour... and it is programmed by satellite to lay da "smackdown" on bin laden! Nose camera delivers "realtime" video evidence.
Money damn well spent!
LLS
?......is this just really another Russian piece of work?
Sure,.....
OOPS!
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