Free Republic

The US Air Force on Wednesday test launched a hypersonic cruise missile, with the vehicle accelerating to Mach 6 before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean, officials said. The Air Force said the test flight of the X-15A Waverider lasted more than 200 seconds, the longest ever hypersonic flight powered by scramjet propulsion. The previous record was 12 seconds in a NASA X-43 vehicle. "We are ecstatic to have accomplished most of our test points on the X-51A's very first hypersonic mission," Charlie Brink, program manager with the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. "We...

The U.S. Air Force is set to successfully launch a Boeing X-51 for 300 seconds of hypersonic flight By the end of this month, the U.S. Air Force will begin a series of hypersonic tests that will send a scramjet into the atmosphere for about five minutes, at nearly five times the speed of sound. A scramjet is a supersonic combustion ramjet, while a ramjet is a jet engine using the engine's forward motion to compress air. If all goes as planned, this will be the first time that an aircraft will have flown at such speeds for more than...

Prompt Global Strike (PGS) is an initiative of the United States military to develop a system capable of a conventional weapon strike anywhere in the world within an hour. The system is designed for time-critical strike in emergency situation, or to counter terrorist activities like attacking a terrorist leader based on inputs of his location, or against a rogue state preparing to launch an attack by localised destruction of his weapon assets. Need for Conventional Prompt Global Strike (CPGS) can be described in a given scenario where the United States has learned of a terrorist group’s plan to transport a...

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...

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...

In a flight test reminiscent of the early days of the historic X-15 program 50 years earlier, the X-51A Waverider was carried aloft for the first time over Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., Wednesday, Dec. 9 by an Air Force Flight Test Center B-52H Stratofortress. The "captive carry" test was a key milestone in preparation for the X-51 to light its supersonic combustion ramjet engine and propel the WaverRider at hypersonic speed for about 5 minutes, before plunging into the Pacific Ocean. That flight test is currently planned in about two months, said Charlie Brink, X-51A program manager with the...

The US Air Force Research Laboratory's X-51A WaveRider scramjet engine demonstrator completed its first captive-carry flight under the wing of its B-52H mothership from Edwards AFB on Dec. 9. The first free flight is planned for mid-February. The B-52 climbed to the planned launch altitude of 50,000ft during a 1.4h flight that checked out systems and telemetry. The next flight, planned for mid-January, will be a full dress-rehearsal for the first of four planned X-51A hypersonic test flights. The Boeing-built X-51A will be released at 50,000ft over the Pacific and accelerated to Mach 4.5 by a solid rocket booster. The...

EDWARDS AFB - The base that first broke the sound barrier is once again pushing the boundaries of flight test, this time with sustained flight at hypersonic speeds. The Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards Air Force Base is responsible for the upcoming flight test of the X-51, a vehicle designed to travel at speeds greater than five times the speed of sound. The project takes on special meaning as no hypersonic project has made it to the flight test phase in a number of years, he said. The last one - also from Edwards - was NASA's X-43A,...

EDWARDS AFB - The 412th Test Wing Hypersonic Flight Test Team, Electronic Warfare Directorate and The Boeing Co. began testing on the X-51 Scramjet-Wave­rider's antennas at the Benefield Anechoic Facility. The X-51 is a self-guided, unmanned aircraft with a scramjet engine enabling it to travel at a hypersonic speed - faster than six times the speed of sound. The aircraft will be loaded onto a B-52 Stratofortress. Boosted by an Army tactical cruise missile, the X-51 will be dropped from an altitude of 50,000 feet and will soar at hypersonic speed. "Hypersonics is the way of the future," said Maj....