Slashdot Mirror
HyShot Scramjet Test Declared a Success
An anonymous reader writes: "ABC news is reporting
that analysis of the flight data from the recent
HyShot scramjet test (covered by Slashdot
previously) suggests that the test was successful and that the engine achieved combustion in flight after reaching Mach 7.6. The University of Queensland is also reporting the news."
You are correct, from start to finish, if you are traveling at mach 7.6 the flight would take 2 hours. But the question was, how long would it take to get up to mach 7.6. How far along on your flight would you be before you reached that speed.
The test flight used a small craft, not a large passenger jet. It would be both easier and faster to reach that speed in a smaller light craft(and even then they used a MK 70 rocket engine, which I'm pretty sure isn't rated for passengers). Even if they were to just use a rocket or catapult(like on an aircraft carrier) to bring you to that speed faster, the G's would be immense, I'm not even sure if a G-suit would keep you from blacking out. And as stated earlier, if you gradually were to gain speed until you reached that point, you would be almost at your destination before you reached mach 7.6, and it would be time to start slowing down for landing.
Xaotik Designs
Mach 7.6 is right around 2,260 m/s (7,414 ft/s) or about 5,055 mph. It would still take you 5 hours to circumnavigate the globe. Plus you have to consider acceleration time - the rocket doesn't have to worry about killing people.
Realistically, we probably won't hit Mach 7 in commercial flights for some time, and there will probably be "low-speed" versions for shorter distances. As the article notes (emphasis mine):
--
Warning! Error reporting system failu
That what was all this school was for... to teach us how to solve our own problems. -- janeowit
Me too, but it is an expiremental craft, and there were problems launching the first one.
hmmm...
Add a warhead and you have one hell of a fast ICBM...
Xaotik Designs
Almost everything. Normal jet engines have lots of moving parts - turbines, compressors, etc. Ramjets and scramjets don't have any moving parts. They also require very high velocities to work properly, whereas a turbojet/turbofan is quite happy running all day long without moving.
Something like that would be impressive, and also would have definite mind bending impact on the popation below, just due to the sonic boom.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
Ever hit a speedbump at low speeds?
Not that bad.
Ever hit one at a higher speed? Say, at least twice it's rating (hitting a 15km/h bump at 30km/h, for example)?
It's not the most pleasant things.
Now, you're saying that "Planes don't have to worry about speed bumps!", and you're right.
But what about turbulence?
You can hit turbulence at Mach 0.76 that's pretty rough. What would that same turbulence to do a large plane at Mach 7.6?
Dark Nexus
"Sanity is calming, but madness is more interesting."
Well, that's kinda deceptive really, because pressure and temperature are very related for a gas. If you model the gas as idea, then you get the relationship:
P*v=R*T (where v=V/N) or, if you'd rather use density...
density (rho) = P*M/(R*T)
So, you can have temperature in terms of pressure, or pressure in terms of temperature. They are interrelated: with a gas, you can't change one of those parameters in isolation.
Very fast ramjet cruise missiles were under development in the 1950's, but they fell out of favor because ICBMs are even faster and just about impossible to shoot down. However, they did look way cooler than today's boring ICBMs.