Key Test Tuesday For Hypersonic Flight

[Chris_]

Key Test Tuesday For Hypersonic Flight

Tuesday over the Pacific Ocean off Southern California, there's going to be a test of an experimental aircraft called the X-51A WaveRider. If all goes as planned, it will accelerate to about 3,600 mph — a speed, as the Los Angeles Times reports, that could get you from L.A. to N.Y.C. in about 46 minutes.

That's nearly three time faster than the Concorde used to fly. The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, "the fastest aircraft propelled by air-breathing engines," as the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum writes, could hit 2,200 mph.

Don't book your tickets yet for the WaveRider, though. The X-51A WaveRider is an unmanned craft. Plus, Tuesday's test will be considered a success if it can sustain hypersonic speed for about 300 seconds.

[youtube=640,480]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=0QX1sncLMZs[/youtube]

NPR

Sign me up (after they get all the wrinkles ironed out).

[rich_t]

SCRAMJET.

[JohnnyReb]

3,600 mph huh? I could almost get the wife to where she needs to be on time with something that fast.

She's supposed to be at a dinner 30 miles away at 12:00 noon....at 11:55 am. she's finally ready to go and I'm expected to get her there on time.

[Airwolf]

And people will still be late for work and the airlines will still lose you bags only they will do it faster then ever.

[Chris_]

Military’s Mach 5 Missile Fails, Again

Ah, oh well.  We'll just have to wait for Zephram Cochran.

[Airwolf]

That sucks. But then again they have been trying for many years to get this far so they will keep trying. I hope they make it soon.