[cripplecreek]

"Did it work?"

I was wondering that myself. The story indicates that it was launched but doesn't say anything about success.

[milestogo]

It worked.

NASA's X-43A Scramjet Breaks Speed Record

NASA's X-43A research vehicle screamed into the record books today, demonstrating an air-breathing engine can fly at nearly 10 times the speed of sound. Preliminary data from the scramjet-powered research vehicle show its revolutionary engine worked successfully at approximately Mach 10, nearly 7000 mph, as it flew at an altitude of approximately 110,000 feet.

"This flight is a key milestone and a major step toward the future possibilities for producing boosters for sending large and critical payloads into space in a reliable, safe, inexpensive manner," said NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe. "These developments will also help us advance the Vision for Space Exploration, while helping to advance commercial aviation technology," Administrator O'Keefe said.

[RadioAstronomer]

Topped mach 9. :-)

[Criminal Number 18F]

Did it work?

X-43 #3 now sleeps with the fishes after 10 seconds of hypersonic flight with an estimated peak speed of about Mach 9.7 (this will likely change somewhat as the numbers get crunched). That's roughly 7,000 miles an hour or 100 times highway speed.

It is the fastest anything that breathes air has ever gone. The previous record was about Mach 6.8, set by X-43 #2 back in March (#1 squibbed and had to be destroyed).

The record setting Blackbird reconnaissance plane's fastest version, the A-12, was limited to Mach 3.2 and is the fastest manned air-breathing aircraft, ever. SpaceShip One achieved a peak Mach of 3.5 in the climb and 3.9 on re-entry, which is the fastest a private manned craft has gone. The fastest non-orbital manned craft was the X-15 research plane which set an unofficial record of Mach 6.7 (which was faster than the designers expected). Of course, orbital machines achieve 18,000 to 25,000 miles an hour to break free of Earth gravity.

A high-velocity working SCRAMJET is huge for several reasons:

1. It's been postulated for decades, but never achieved. (I first read about it in a model rocketry magazine almost forty years ago!)

2. Unlike rockets, a SCRAMJET draws its oxidizer from the atmosphere -- no need to schlep a great big tank of LOX or H2O2 around.

3. It has potential for a first stage of a Two Stage To Orbit reusable spaceplane -- like SpaceShipOne to the next order of complexity/difficulty. If you can launch from 7,000 mph your orbital machine just went way down in weight and therefore cost and everything else.

4. It has potential for extremely fast freight and possibly passenger service. "I can have it on your desk in Tokyo by afternoon; London tells me they had it on the morning SCRAMJET."

5. It has the potential for economical, hard-to-intercept reconnaissance vehicles and cruise missiles.

So I guess you could say... it did work!

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F