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NASA Testing Supersonic X-51A Jet Tomorrow

Posted by Unknown on from the but-does-it-go-to-plaid? dept.

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."

7 of 214 comments (clear)

  1. 1700 miles a second????? by stox · · Score: 1, Informative

    That would be 6.12 MILLION miles per hour. Somehow, I doubt that.

    --
    "To those who are overly cautious, everything is impossible. "
    1. Re:1700 miles a second????? by Sparkio · · Score: 4, Informative

      Mach 5 = 1,701.45 m / s... still pretty crazy fast - LA to NY in ~42 minutes - but no, not LA to NY in 2 seconds. Methinks someone plugged it into google and thought 'hey, m must mean miles, right?'

  2. Another article with more background... by daveschroeder · · Score: 4, Informative

    ...is here

  3. Re:Cost by BadgerRush · · Score: 5, Informative

    No, they are crashing the f22's into the desert

  4. Re:Cost by filthpickle · · Score: 1, Informative

    no they aren't.

  5. It's not supersonic, it's hypersonic by Beryllium+Sphere(tm) · · Score: 5, Informative

    Above Mach 5 or so you have to start considering different physics about the air flow.

  6. Re:Cost by SplashMyBandit · · Score: 5, Informative

    Correct. Turns out that the 'Raptor' problem is, in fact, related to incorrect inflation of the "Combat Edge" chest corset of G-suits. This incorrect inflation also occurred on F-15s and F-16s but no one noticed. Only on the F-22 was it noticed/significant.

    Just in case you think I'm full of shit, here's a citation quoting USAF sources:
    http://www.military.com/daily-news/2012/08/01/air-force-confident-f22-oxygen-riddle-solved.html

    With that (apparently 20-year old) problem solved, Raptor is back in the air and back to Top Dog.