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USAF Scramjet Hits Mach 6, Sets Record
s122604 writes "The [X-51A Waverider]'s scramjet engine accelerated the vehicle to Mach 6, and it flew autonomously for 200 seconds before losing acceleration. At that point the test was terminated. The Air Force said the previous record for a hypersonic scramjet burn was 12 seconds. Joe Vogel, Boeing's director of hypersonics, said, 'This is a new world record and sets the foundation for several hypersonic applications, including access to space, reconnaissance, strike, global reach and commercial transportation.'"
So, do you have a life, or do you just sit reading Slashdot so you can tell everyone the quality of your last fart? Because your comments have about the same value.
so much energy squandered on killing people we don't get along with. Hell, most of that cold war junk never got used (thank ghod!) hopefully spin-offs and unintended side-effects can make some positive contribution to society.
Yes, and the next flights rapidly increased in duration.
The Wright brothers already had something in 1903 that scramjets never had so far, passengers.
From Wiki: "While very short suborbital scramjet test flights have been performed, no flown scramjet has ever been designed to survive a flight test."
Scramjets don't even survive their flights. I think the Wrioght brothers win here again.
We've been dicking at scramjets for decades. It's a go-nowhere technology designed to generate degrees (as in PhDs, not temperature), mostly for weapons reasearch. Weapons against who, I don't know.
This will never be a practical, money-making technology. It's almost as bad as fusion power.