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X-43A Hits Mach 7

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the doing-it-and-doing-it-well dept.

quiggy writes "As previously reported, NASA tested the X-43A yesterday. The results are in, and the scramjet hit Mach 7, setting a new speed record. CNN is also reporting the story, with a note that a similar jet could be tested by the end of the year, hopefully reaching Mach 10."

22 of 405 comments (clear)

  1. But at that speed... by Alt_Cognito · · Score: 4, Funny

    They will need to go back and save the whales etc...

  2. Mach 7? by RadRafe · · Score: 5, Funny

    Isn't that a shaver? You know, the one with seven blades?

  3. Mach 10? Mach 10? by burgburgburg · · Score: 5, Funny
    The engines canna take it, Cap'n.

  4. 4 posts... by chimpo13 · · Score: 5, Funny

    and not a single Speed Racer joke. I'll reload in 30 seconds.

    --
    riding round the world on an old motorcycle
    1. Re:4 posts... by danratherfan · · Score: 2, Funny

      Here he comes, here comes X-43a
      He's a demon with a scramjet
      He's a demon and he gets his own oxygen from the atmosphere

      He's gainin' on you so you better look alive
      He's busy traveling at a powerful Mach5! (or seven, or ten)

      And when the odds are against him because they cuuuuuut his funding
      You bet your life X-43a, will end up dead in a hanger some where.

      Go X-43a, go X-43a, go X-43a, goooooooo.

  5. How soon before... by DoctorPepper · · Score: 3, Funny

    I can get one of these for my Toyota Corolla? Man, that sure would cut my commute time down!

    --

    No matter where you go... there you are.
  6. Re:sublight speed ;) by Fisher99 · · Score: 3, Funny

    So officially they can now call them sublight engines.

  7. How fast .. by the+eric+conspiracy · · Score: 5, Funny

    new speed record

    African or European?

  8. First Mach 10... by Evanrude · · Score: 4, Funny

    Then Quantum Leap. Where will Scott Bakula show up next??

    --

    ~.Evanrude
  9. Re:CNN gets it wrong by openmtl · · Score: 5, Funny
    The new trans-Atlantic flight time is now 6 hours....
    Midtown to JFK - 1 hour (off peak)
    JFK TIA/Homeland/Patriot-enabled security -> Plane seat - 3 Hours
    US -> UK flight time in new Mach 10 rocket - 2 Hours

    Total time 6 hours. Your bags though would arrive 2 days later assuming that they hadn't been blown up in an anti-terrorist "controlled explosion" at LAX.

    --

  10. Re:CNN slipping,... by dave420 · · Score: 2, Funny
    Yet Fox still managed to blame it not hitting mach 10 on the pink-commie-leftie democrats, and "their heathen ilk"...


    heh.

  11. Re:CNN should take a look at the history books... by wisebabo · · Score: 2, Funny

    Yeah but they are going the long way around.

  12. Yeah!! by the+eric+conspiracy · · Score: 4, Funny


    NASA overclockers RULE!!

  13. Re:Mach 10 by dynoman7 · · Score: 5, Funny

    mach 10 = 20461245.5 furlongs per fortnight

    --
    Blarf.
  14. science vs. lay by MasTRE · · Score: 2, Funny

    I clicked the first link and saw that NASA only used Mach units to report speed. Then, before clicking the CNN link, I made a bet with myself that they would include mph. Needless to say, I won :)

    --
    Must-not-watch TV!
  15. From the CNN article by badmonkey · · Score: 2, Funny
    "The space agency's dogged pursuit of extreme speed, officials hope, will ultimately make space flight easier to accomplish.

    It also could drastically cut the time of commercial flights -- perhaps shortening the trip between New York and London to less than five hours."
    New York to London in less than five hours! That's heresy, that can't be done!
  16. There wasn't anything left to examine by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Um, the airframe hit the ocean going several thousand miles per hour. There wasn't anything left larger than a dime.

  17. Re:At the present rate by alphorn · · Score: 5, Funny

    it's not impossible, it's just infinitely improbable.

  18. Re:sublight speed ;) by atomicdragon · · Score: 2, Funny

    I think the poster means the velocity's direction does not matter if you are ignoring friction. If you were to travel with escape velocity towards the center of the Earth, without hitting something, you would come out of the other side of the gravity well with the same velocity at the same altitude and would be ready to go. However, in the real world the Earth is kind of the way and hitting it at escape velocity would be one heck of demonstration of friction. In that case your velocity direction determines how your kinetic energy is divided between liquefying your craft and spreading the remaining parts across the planet.

  19. Re:Armchair physicists are idiots by 0x0d0a · · Score: 4, Funny

    4) The toyota corolla attachment won't be out until 2006.

    Bullshit. Toyota announced that they will not be selling *any* vehicles with the scramjet until it completes product safety retesting, which will be finished in 2008 at the earliest. Apparently, the flux capacitor doesn't perform as expected above about 88 mph.

    --
    May we never see th
  20. Re:Not exactly the same... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Bullshit! NASA are always a step behind poorly funded universities.

  21. Re:sublight speed ;) by SnowZero · · Score: 2, Funny

    Well, it did happen a long time ago...