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NASA Testing Supersonic X-51A Jet Tomorrow

First time accepted submitter littlesparkvt writes "The NASA and the Pentagon's experimental aircraft could go from NY to London in about an hour. With a cost of 140 million dollars USD. During the test the X51-A will reach speeds of 1700 meters a second and climb to an altitude of 70,000 feet."

9 of 214 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Math by fustakrakich · · Score: 3, Funny

    You have to account for jet lag.

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  2. Re:1700 miles a *second* ??? by similar_name · · Score: 4, Funny

    Warp .01 sound way cooler.

  3. Re:1700 miles a *second* ??? by jbeaupre · · Score: 4, Funny

    Nope. It's correct. They are launching over the Pacific ocean. They expect it to disappear off the left side of the map and reappear on the right side of the map about 14 seconds later. 24,000 miles divided by 14 seconds gives you 1700 miles/sec.

    Maybe they should use a globe.

    --
    The world is made by those who show up for the job.
  4. Re:Cost by R3d+M3rcury · · Score: 4, Funny

    This isn't a jet-plane. It's a fucking missile.

    Okay. So it could blow up London in about an hour.

  5. Re:1700 miles a second????? by R3d+M3rcury · · Score: 4, Funny

    Mach 5 = 1,701.45 m / s

    Yup. m = miles, s = seconds. That's 1700 miles per second.

    I mean, what else could m possibly stand for? There's only one unit of measurement that starts with the letter 'm'...

  6. Re:1700 miles a second????? by R3d+M3rcury · · Score: 5, Funny

    m is metre moron

    It's an American missile. Why would they be talking in weird foreign measurements? I mean, "metre"?! R before E? Who spells like that? Sounds like some kind of cheese-eatin' surrender-monkey socialist kind of measurement. Certainly not the kind of measurement that freedom lovin' people from the Good ol' USA would use.

    So there you have it. 1700 miles per second. That'll put the fear of God into those godless commies.

    (I was going to mark my original post as sarcasm but I thought, "Nah. People will get it.")

  7. Re:huray for proofreading by hargrand · · Score: 4, Funny

    Dad: Max, why does the word "wing" appear twice in this sentence?

    Max (6yrs old): Because the B-52 has two wings.

  8. Re:Cost by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    But it will still take NBC 6 hours to report it.

  9. Re:1700 miles a second????? by stepho-wrs · · Score: 2, Funny

    1,701.45 big Macs per second.
    Wow!