Hypersonic aircraft shatters aviation records

Source: LA Times

An aircraft resembling a large bodyboard detached from a flying B-52 bomber and then shot across the Pacific on Wednesday at more than 3,500 mph, shattering aviation records and reigniting decades-long efforts to develop a vehicle that could travel faster than a speeding bullet.

The unmanned X-51 WaveRider, powered by an air-breathing hypersonic engine that has virtually no moving parts, was launched midair off the coast near Point Mugu. It sped westward for 200 seconds before plunging into the ocean as planned. Previous attempts at hypersonic flights lasted no more than 10 seconds.

"Everything went very well for a first flight," said Charlie Brink, the X-51 program manager for the Air Force. "For things to go off the way they did, we're confident this technology has a bright future."

Since the 1960s, the Air Force has been flirting with hypersonic technology, which can propel vehicles at a velocity that cannot be achieved from traditional turbine-powered jet engines.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hypersonic-20100527,0,764506.story?track=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+latimes%2Fmostviewed+%28L.A.+Times+-+Most+Viewed+Stories%29

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Very interesting! The idea of hypersonic air-breathers was hyped back in the 1980s in the National Aerospace Plane (NASP) project that was touted as the replacement for the space shuttle. The NASP program turned out to be the cover story for the Air Force's hypersonic technology development program.

We must develop this stuff fast or we'll be a victim of the "hypersonic gap"...

Damn those Soviets!

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And the f*cking useless war machine rumbles on -- $18 TRILLION and counting since the permanent war economy began in 1944!!!


And then there's this phony war too... http://www.drugsense.org/wodclock.htm Over $20 Billion so far this year.

Prety impressive.

A few years back, some National Space Society people were excited about a design concept called a Waverider. According to Wikipedia:


I thought about this when I read the article; but, I thought the use of the name might be a coincidence. The Waverider was being proposed as a configuration for future shuttle designs, including the mythical 'National Aerospace Plane.'

Icefire (?) I think- the main character has to take a top secret aircraft to get somewhere fast- upon looking at the vehicle the tag along token girl remarks to the main character- "It doesn't have any wings, and the main character says- "Neiher do missles."

especially as it's unmanned. Well, teaching missiles to breathe air isn't a bad thing, it saves weight and fuel.

Something moving that fast doesn't need a warhead.

Amazingly it's been released and is on YouTube. Or if it's not cleared for released someone's in a ton of shit. Either way, it's pretty cool:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZUwKX3_uE4

For all the horror in the Gulf of Mexico right now, I can't imagine that plunging a large object at 3500 mph into the water is very good for the marine life there either.

It didn't hit the water at anywhere near that kind of speed. It is my understanding that it used up the available fuel and then "crashed" into the ocean when it no longer had the speed/energy to stay aloft.

A 'normal' plane crash would be far worse.

From the article lead:

The Air Force tests an unmanned X-51 WaveRider off the coast near Point Mugu (west of Vandenberg AFB). Launched from a B-52 bomber, it hits 3,500 mph and travels for 200 seconds before plunging into the ocean as planned.

An aircraft that small and relatively light is going to slow to subsonic speeds almost immediately after it loses power. I would imagine its terminal velocity would be under 300 knots. It'd still make quite a splash, though.

Additionally, the Air Force postponed the test because the Navy spotted a freighter in the splashdown area. link

:thumbsup:

Point Mugu is only 50 miles from here. I used to hike in the mountains near there all the time.

So we can kill people more quickly?

I'd imagine that something that fast would be good for an ABM system with the right guidance system.

do the quarter in .5 seconds?

That just gets the other nuclear powers nervous, and the U.S. overconfident. It's a recipe for an accidental nuclear war.

Why? IS that what you want?

But that's just me.

And just a hair under a statue mile per second.

For comparison:

a car at 70mph is about 105 ft/s

a jetliner cruises at about 810 ft/s

a 9mm handgun bullet leaves the barrel at about 1,100 ft/s

a 7.62mm rifle bullet leave the barrel at about 2,700 ft/s

a radar-guided air-to-air missiles travels at about 4,500 ft/s




This kind of available power could lead to high-velocity high-efficiency air travel. The planes using them would be able to fly so high that air resistance would be vastly reduced compared to normal airliner altitudes. Imagine burning less gas per person to travel from Los Angeles to Bejing, and getting there in one-seventh the time.

THAT would be awesome!

First they take a subsonic B-52 up to 50,000 ft; then they launch it on a booster rocket, which takes it supersonic, and only then is it going fast enough for the ramjet to work. It's a pretty inefficient mode of transport. Frankly, the SR-71, with a variable intake jet that more or less turns into a ramjet at supersonic speeds, seems more promising. And the first form of that flew 48 years ago.

was supposed to take us to Australia from the UK in about 3 hours!

(it was BAE, wasn't it? Back when they still looked interested in building civilian aircraft?), but I think it did have ramjets involved.

The Wikipedia description of the A12/SR71's engine:



Hmm, while I was on Wikipedia, I looked for HOTOL. Seems it wasn't a ramjet, but an engine that could take oxygen from air at lower speeds, then switched to liquid oxygen for high speed:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HOTOL
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RB545

Shockwave riding supersonic-combustion-ramjet hypersonic hotness.
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The X-51A "Waverider" craft was dropped from a modified B-52 bomber test mothership 50,000 feet above Point Mugu sea firing range off the California coast at about 6pm last night UK time (10am local). Four seconds later a rocket booster taken from a tactical missile fired, accelerating the Waverider to Mach 4.5 before being jettisoned. The airframe doesn't work like a normal aeroplane: it actually surfs on the sonic shockwaves trailing back from its nose, hence its name.

The hypersonic X-51A ignited, burning a mixture of ethylene and JP-7 jet fuel, and once well alight switched over to all-jetfuel operation. Normal turbojets can't operate at hypersonic speeds; the Waverider is a ramjet, whose intake air is simply scooped in at the front due to its speed rather than being crammed in by compressor blades.

But normal ramjets have to slow that air down to subsonic speed inside themselves so as to avoid blowing out the flame in their combustion chamber. This limits them to a top speed of perhaps Mach 3.5. The Waverider, though, is a scramjet - a supersonic combustion ramjet - which lets the air blow through it supersonically. It is thought by its designers to be capable of burning for 300 seconds to reach Mach 6.

The X-51A didn't fulfil that potential yesterday, however. Having lit up it burned for around 200 seconds, reaching approximately Mach 5 and climbing to 70,000 feet. According to a statement issued by Boeing (whose Phantom Works plant built the Waverider):

Something then occurred that caused the vehicle to lose acceleration. At that point, the X-51A was terminated as planned.

It's possible to speculate that the flame in the Waverider's SJY61 scramjet, built by Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, simply blew out. Project officials are still happy with the test, and seem confident that they will be able to achieve the designed speed before running out of test craft - there are three more.

More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/05/27/x51_first_shot/

Simplified Scramjet:



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scramjet

about them thar G-forces?

India is not only stealing both our high-tech jobs AND our technology in the process, they're trying to take our lead in areas like aerospace. I'm a little skeptical about the claims for this vehicle; the concept sounds a lot like the liquid air cycle engine researched in the U.S. in the 50's/60's, or the Reaction Engines SABRE concept. But, the issue is that we might lose our lead in aerospace, about the only area we still dominate.

Did you note the paragraph in the Wikipedia article that talked about the potential of advanced technologies like nanotechnology?



The Indian government is very interested in nanotechnology, especially the weapons applications. India also considers nanotechnology to be the next big wave of outsourcing.

Be afraid! Be very afraid! :scared:

but killing people without a trial by remote control is criminal. I suppose a real declaration of war would make this might right?

"With the technology, the military could strike anywhere on planet within an hour or less, said John Pike, director of Globalsecurity.org, a website for military policy research."

Aurora does Mach 10, but the government is covering it up.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora_%28aircraft%29

Aerospace writer G. Harry Stine stated that the Aurora was actually a cover story for the Air Force's hypersonic technology development program; Stine also claimed the much-hyped 'National Aerospace Plane (NASP) was also a cover for the same program. He made the claim in his book Halfway to Anywhere: Achieving America's Destiny in Space 1998. I remember Stine was one of the aerospace people who was always skeptical of the potential for scramjets and hypersonic flight.