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Second Test of X-43A Scramjet Tomorrow

Posted by michael on from the once-the-rockets-go-up-who-cares-where-they-come-down dept.

pinkUZI writes "NASA says its new Hyper-X, a jet capable of flying some 5,000mph - seven times the speed of sound - will be ready to take a test cruise across the Pacific this Saturday. This is actually NASA's second attempt; the first, in 2001, failed when stabilizing fins flew off the plane's booster rocket and controllers ordered the craft destroyed. CNN has the story." NASA's mission web page has more information, photos, etc.

1 of 325 comments (clear)

  1. Re:still need ... by trs998 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Wouldnt it have a problem with wing size?

    flying at 5,000 mph, you'd basically have all the body lift yo'd need... the SR-71 (aka Habu or Blackbird) uses small wings and is very specialized.

    The SR-71 has tiny wings, and consists of 2 huge engines.. it also leaks fuel onto the runway until the body heats up to running temperature.

    The point being that the SR-71 has a very high take off and landing speed due to the small lift per mile figure. It will fly straight up and over a thousand mph until the engines run out of oxygen at nigh on 100,000 feet.

    A aircraft using the scramjet capable of 5,000 mph would have to have very small wings for low air resistance and wouldnt need large lift per mile.
    The ScramJet wouldnt work at low speeds, therefore the runway would have to be very long to take off using a conventional JATO (Jet Assisted Take Off) unit to get the ScramJet working. Getting a scramjet off the runway is going to be interesting!

    BTW, what engine does the proposed (Active?) Aurora reconissance/spy plane use? It's supposed to have a very high speed (~3000-4000 mph?)