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Mach 10 X43A Flight Successful

Posted by timothy on from the heck-of-a-commute dept.

Sector Bug writes "NASA's X43A research aircraft made its third and final flight today, firing its scramjet engine at Mach 10 (7,000 MPH) or close to it, setting a new record. "

3 of 370 comments (clear)

  1. While certainly a great feat... by fakeplasticusername · · Score: 0, Troll

    Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. There is a mystical power of double digits wrt the public.

  2. Hope for the future by spawnofbill · · Score: 1, Troll

    I really hope the aeronautical industry takes advantage of the testing done with the X-43A. Alot of ideas that were scrapped b/c of red tape and underfunding I.E. nuclear powered flight, true supersonic transportation, Pulse Detonation Engines (although the last one is seeing a revival) If applied correctly this could revolutionize the airline industry and make international travel quick and affordable over time.

  3. Re:Rocket/scramjet/rocket??? by Profane+MuthaFucka · · Score: 0, Troll

    Yes. You get going to (they project) mach 15 without having to use any oxydizer, which is really heavy. The rocket engine that you need at that point to get into orbit is quite small.

    The benefit of launching from any kind of plane is really big. Even dropping a Pegasus rocket from an L-1011 is enough of a performance boost in both speed and altitude that it makes sense for them to do it.

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