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Boeing's X-51 WaveRider Jet Crashes In Mach 6 Attempt

Posted by Soulskill on from the unscheduled-water-landing dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Boeing's experimental hypersonic X-51 WaveRider aircraft crashed today during an attempt to hit Mach 6 while traveling over the Pacific Ocean. The cause of the crash was a faulty control fin, which compromised the test before the Scramjet engine could be lit. A vehicle traveling at Mach 6 (six times the speed of sound) would be able to travel from New York to London in just one hour."

7 of 190 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Why not build several, perhaps 3, at the time? by Jeng · · Score: 4, Informative

    Four were built, three have been tested, one remains.

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  2. Re:I don't think we need to go Mach 6 by Jeng · · Score: 3, Informative

    Initially this will be for better cruise missiles, only after the technology has matured would they consider it for human transport.

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    Don't know something? Look it up. Still don't know? Then ask.
  3. Re:Why not build several, perhaps 3, at the time? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Why not build several, perhaps 3, at the time?

    I doubt it would make the project three times as expensive.

    They actually built 4. The first one flew for 143 seconds at hypersonic speeds, during the 2nd flight the engine shut down prematurely due to airflow disruption, and the 3rd flight is discussed in the linked article that no one is reading. They still have one more, and I am guessing they documented the design somewhere so they could probably build additional vehicles in the future if need be.

  4. we reached that speed in the 1950's! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-15

    First flew in 1959. Reached Mach of 6.04 at one point. Had a pilot in it, not just a drone.

    1. Re:we reached that speed in the 1950's! by jacknifetoaswan · · Score: 3, Informative

      The X-15 was a rocket-powered aircraft. This is a Scramjet, and it's a technology demonstrator. It's not about the speed, it's about developing the technology to achieve workable Scramjet designs.

  5. It's not about the speed by Overzeetop · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's not about flying that fast, it's about operating a supersonic combustion engine to produce positive net thrust. Anyone can stick a rocket on the back of a tube and fly fast, but you have to carry all of your oxidizer with you (or use a monopropellant). With this you just carry the fuel and let the shock transition form the compressor for your jet engine. Of course, it's not quite that simple, since you can't slow down the flow to be subsonic and still achieve + thrust, so you've got to make combustion occur in a flow that's faster than the speed of sound.

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    Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
    1. Re:It's not about the speed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      Scramjets are only efficient to operate aver Mach 3 to 4. They need that level of speed since they get all of their compression from shaping the incoming flow. While the thrust to weight ratio is worse than a rocket but its specific impulse is greater it can fire for much longer than a rocket since it only needs to carry fuel and not oxidizer. The thrust to weight ratio is pretty much fixed by the flow velocity and combustion thermodynamics.