Slashdot Mirror
X43-A on to Mach 10
Cat_Byte writes "On March 28 we read about the X43-A hitting Mach 7 with a successful scramjet test. Prior to that on June 2, 2001 the craft tore itself to pieces during a trial run. Well now they are preparing to hit Mach 10. The upcoming Mach 10 run of the X-43A appears to mark an end of the program. The seven-year, approximately $250 million Hyper-X program was created to provide unique "first time" data on hypersonic air-breathing engine technologies.
"At Mach 7, the front leading edge of the vehicle would see about 2,400 degrees Fahrenheit. At Mach 10, its probably twice that -- twice the heat load essentially," Sitz explained
FYI, Mach 10 is about 2 miles per second."
Ah, but does it get 1700 miles per gallon?
Nah, it's Gillette's new blades that are scheduled for release in the year 2038.
Two miles per second means you can cross the Pacific in under an hour.
It's still going to take 4 hours just to get to the airport, check your baggage and get through security.
FYI, he was referring to the episode of Star Trek Voyager, where they test out the new engine technology on the shuttle. It goes Warp 10 which apparently causes 2 of the characters to "evolve" into gecko-like creatures. another completely ridiculous plot that took place around the time of the episode where they found Amelia Earhart
the Kessel run in under twelve parsecs?
but Mach 10 won't be 2 miles per second because they are not flying at sea level.
... )..... (sorry, i know it's bad expressed) being about 287.15 for air
Mach number is the square root of the product of gamma, R, and T. Being:
gamma a propertie of the gas (1.33~1.44 aprox for air),
R the constant of the gas (universal R over Molecular Mass for every kilo
And T is the absolute temperature of the gas;
According to the International Atmosphere model, the temperature of air drops 6.5K every kilometer until you reach 11Km, beyond it remains constant until 22km, where it again rises.
So, if depending of the height (and particular condition of the day and the state of atmosphere) the Mach speed varies
As i haven't seen at what height they are flying, you can calculate yourself the Mach speed if you find the numbers.
So is very probable that they are flying at really great heights where the mach value greatly differs from sea level Mach, what is taught to children, as other poster suggested
Values of temperature of atmosphere can be found looking for ISA model (International Standard Atmosphere)
By the way, i am using SI; so, if you find a table with Farenhait (or whatever it is spelled) you can convert a farenheit degree to kelvin via:
(TF-32)/1.8+273 = kelvin
PD: Sorry for my bad english
Does it bother anybody else that they've (essentially) taken a vibrator and put razor blades on it?
lorem ipsum, dolor sit amet
General Tufnel: The Mach numbers all go to eleven. Look, right across the board, eleven, eleven, eleven and...
Reporter: Oh, I see. And most planes go up to ten?
General Tufnel: Exactly.
Reporter: Does that mean it's faster? Is it any faster?
General Tufnel: Well, it's one faster, isn't it? It's not ten. You see, most pilots, you know, will be flying at ten. You're on ten, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up, you're on ten on your airspeed. Where can you go from there? Where?
Reporter: I don't know.
General Tufnel: Nowhere. Exactly. What we do is, if we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do?
Reporter: Put it up to eleven.
General Tufnel: Eleven. Exactly. One faster.
Reporter: Why don't you just make ten faster and make ten be the top number and make that a little faster?
General Tufnel: [Pause] These go to eleven.
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
"from the place-hands-on-cheeks-and-pull-back dept."
How in the world did the goatse.cx guy convince Taco to post that caption?
-------
"Every artist is a cannibal, every poet is a thief."
Yeah, but they saved a lot of money on car insurance. That came in handy when they found the Chevy... floating in... space.
--
Evan
"$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien