Slashdot Mirror
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."
Utter shite. No amount of money would have kept the manufacturers in the business of maintaining the airframes. They have too much else to do. The airlines didn't shut it down, the manufacturers did. Without a place to go for regular maintenance, you don't keep your airworthiness certificate. This means you don't fly. And the airlines did indeed spend a lot of money to try and mitigate the mechanical circumstances of the Paris crash, which wasn't even their fault. Crap on the runway is crap on the runway, no matter who or what runs over it. If that incident had not happened, I'm willing to bet Concorde would still be flying, even in the current climate.
But Airbus is the new darling, so they've distanced themselves from Concorde and concentrated on their own designs. With recent advances in engine design and composite technology, a new supersonic plane would not consume so much fuel and would doubtless get longer range, given it's only a matter of initial design choice.
It fucking annoys me - one accident (not even self inflicted) in 30 years and people turn round saying "I told you so".
Ti is the 9th most abundant element in the crust (7th most abundant metal).
The wiki page answers all your questions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanium
Ti is abundant enough that we use it in toothpaste and toilet cleaner; I don't think you need to worry about it going anywhere.
-b
No offense, but I've stopped responding to AC's.
You didn't think the SR 71 wasn't replaced, did you ?
Um... Yeah, it was replaced... With *satellites*.
And just a word of wisdom from someone who works for 'the dark side': Supersonic aircraft are not stealthy--http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_boom
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/xplanes/stea-flash.html
-b
No offense, but I've stopped responding to AC's.
Actually, China is trying hard to lock up LOADS of resources all over the world, but the biggies are Rare Earth minerals as well as Uranium. This last week, they quit exports of a select group of REMs that they have control of, and others that they do not have total control of, they dropped the possible exports. At this very moment, Australia is deciding whether to sell them several of their mines. Hopefully they do not as they are REM mines and will be needed by the entire rest of the world. These minerals are concerned with making permanent magnet motors that are going into Electric Cars as well as are used in nearly all electronics.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
This need not be the case (well, the noise issue likely does) with a future supersonic passenger aircraft.
There is no regulation against flying supersonic over the continent. The regulations are for maximum decibel levels generated over populated areas. You can fly high enough that the pressure waves have dissipated by the time they hit the ground, although this has been found to have limited effect. You can design your fuselage and wing such that the pressure wave is spread out over a longer area, and directed laterally, so it never spikes above the limits. There is been a lot of work in that area over the past few years with the intent of bringing back SSTs.