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Mach 6 Test Aircraft Set For Trials
coondoggie writes "The aspiration that jets may someday fly at over six times the speed of sound took a very real step toward reality recently, as the US Air Force said it successfully married the test aircraft, known as the X-51A WaveRider, to a B-52 in preparation for a Dec. 2 flight test. The X-51A flight tests are intended to demonstrate that the engines can achieve their desired speed without disintegrating. While the X-51 looks like a large rocket now, its applications could change the way aircraft or spaceships are designed, fly into space, support reconnaissance missions and handle long-distance flight operations. At the heart of the test is the aircraft's air-breathing hypersonic scramjet system."
Mach 6, how blades is that?
Nice to be the test pilot. "Increase the speed to mach 6, we're just gonna check that the engines don't disintegrate."
WHOOOSH!
(ducks)
"Kill 'em all and let Root sort 'em out"
While the X-51 looks like a large rocket now, its applications could change the way aircraft or spaceships are designed, fly into space, support reconnaissance missions and handle long-distance flight operations.
The Concorde flew at 2.2 Mach and in order to achieve this, it ended up too expensive to create, manufacture and maintain. It would be awkward to see airlines adopt airplanes which are more expensive to fly than current models. The trend is towards less fuel usage, and cheaper flight, in fact, at the expense of speed at times. On the other hand I'm happy to see that US is working heavily on creating a replacement for F-22, an insanely expensive jet with a nearly 30 year history that was barely ever used for something at all, before being discontinued :P...