Posted on 02/26/2010 8:46:52 PM PST by ErnstStavroBlofeld
The U.S. Air Force is gearing up for the first of four planned test flights of a hypersonic aircraft designed to operate for much longer durations and cover far greater distances than previous platforms of its type.
The maiden flight of the X-51 Waverider aircraft — the first U.S. hypersonic vehicle to fly in six years — is scheduled to take place later in March. Boeing Defense, Space & Security Systems of St. Louis has been developing the aircraft since 2003 on behalf of the Air Force Research Laboratory and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
The missile-shaped X-51 will be carried aloft under the wing of a B-52 bomber, Joe Vogel, Boeing’s director of hypersonics, said in a Feb. 22 interview. It will be released from the jet over the Pacific Ocean and drop for four seconds until its rocket motor ignites and accelerates it to about 5,800 kilometers per hour, just shy of the widely accepted start of hypersonic flight at Mach 5, or about 6,100 kilometers per hour. At that point, its air-breathing scramjet — or supersonic combustion ramjet — engine, built by Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne of Canoga Park, Calif., will kick in, shooting the craft to Mach 6, or more than 7,400 kilometers per hour.
Grand plans for hypersonic vehicles have been around for decades, but their goals were often unrealistic and not matched by budgets, resulting in failure. The approach on X-51 has been to demonstrate the technologies that could one day enable things like single-stage-to-orbit vehicles.
(Excerpt) Read more at spacenews.com ...
What for? Isn’t that racist? Obammy may kill it./s
At Mach 6, I think that makes LA to NY in....50 minutes...?
32 minutes.
barely enough time to fully accelerate before braking
scramjets are reportedly capable of mach 10 to mach 25 depending on who you ask apparently.
Wasnt that the mythical Aurora aircraft?
The government does not currently plan to support the X-51 program beyond the four identical flight tests...
Wouldn't it be glad to live in a country where the government had plans to improve the national defense? I have this feeling that I'm living in the Roman Empire CA 300 AD except the TV reception is better.
Well, if the gov't says that it's only the 4 flights and that's all, we should believe them, shouldn't we?
OTOH, it might be nice to know how many scramjet engines the gov't contracted P&W to build, and who owns the plans afterward?
X-51 is a cruise missile. The Aurora is a recon airplane
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:X-51A_Waverider_on_B-52_2009.jpg
Thanks. I will check it out
SSTO and suborbital spacecraft are much more worthwhile projects than returning to the Moon. Research projects in the area have been going on for decades and Congress always kills them, either because they hit a single snag or if they are too successful. We can thank private industry for keeping the research alive, sometimes at their own expense.
"the people that once bestowed commands, consulships, legions, and all else, now meddles no more and longs eagerly for just two things, bread and circuses." - The Roman satirist Juvenal, writing in the first century AD
Or food stamps and the American Idol as the case may be...
Juvenal lived in an easy era to be a satirist. The first half of his life had a lot of parallels with today. The Flavians were spending money like drunken sailors on everything from aqueducts to amphitheaters - none of which stimulated the economy. Over half the population of The City were on the grain dole and living off largess. The good news for Juvenal was that the Flavian dynasty was about to come to in end - in the tepiderium of the imperial palace. :o)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.