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USAF Hypersonic Scramjet Successfully Scrams
cold fjord writes "It looks like another milestone for hypersonic flight has been reached. From the story: 'The final flight of the X-51A Waverider test program has accomplished a breakthrough in the development of flight reaching Mach 5.1 over the Pacific Ocean . . ."It was a full mission success," said Charlie Brink, X-51A program manager for the Air Force Research Laboratory Aerospace Systems Directorate. The cruiser traveled over 230 nautical miles in just over six minutes over the Point Mugu Naval Air Warfare Center Sea Range. It was the longest of the four X-51A test flights and the longest air-breathing hypersonic flight ever. . . This was the last of four test vehicles originally conceived when the $300 million technology demonstration program began in 2004. The program objective was to prove the viability of air-breathing, high-speed scramjet propulsion. The X-51A is unique primarily due to its use of a hydrocarbon fuel in its supersonic combustion ramjet, or Scramjet, engine. ... The use of logistically supportable hydrocarbon fuel is widely considered vital for the practical application of hypersonic flight.'"
That's the last of 4 test units built and there's no immediate successor to the program (TFA). Thank god it worked.
Ludicrous speed!
Really?
They supposedly are having trouble buying plain jet engines for their fighters, so they haven't even got to cloning jet engines at a reasonably high level.
I suppose they'll steal the plans for making one once the US perfects it.
Or did you mean that China is close to developing it on their own, in secret?
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
Don't feel too cocky yet, my American friend. The difference between America and China is that China doesn't make the headlines with such a military/scientific/technical achievement. When time will come, they'll show up..
Okay, fair enough... but seriously. This is the tech the United States Government is letting the public sector show off. We haven't had a public breakthrough weapons technology as good as megaton nukes, since the 60's. Not that China hasn't done its share of economic catch up, but I'm sure there's a lot of powerful tech available to our governments and they've not been needed lately.
Don't care who shows it off... travelling over 1km/s in our atmosphere at that efficiency is bloody outstanding. These guys deserve all the pats on the back they get...
A short definition for all those non-native speakers who wonder - like me - how 6 minutes of flight are more than hours of flight by a Concorde:
Supersonic: Above speed of sound but only up to Mach 5
Hypersonic: Above Mach 5
The fact that both the latin Super and the greek Hyper translate into the same word does not really help the distinction.
The way you're framing it, you consider the Chinese your opponents (the more "sports-like" view, hopefully) or your enemies (the more military view, less hopefully).
In any way...
I suppose they'll steal the plans for making one once the US perfects it.
you are underestimating your opponents. Mistake number one. Way to go!
If you think China has some kind of mailing list that covers exactly what they are doing you have got to be the most naive person on the net. Personally I don't know of any uber projects they have but sitting behind a computer and saying they are 40+ years behind tech and still fight with bamboo sticks you are really giving yourself a disservice. I just realize the likely hood that China really doesn't like the west all that much and they would love you to think they are just training their troops in a new kind of Kung-Fu.
China has an emmense population of genius level citizens and have basically perfected mass production. Hell most of the top talent in the US is Chinese decent. As for the money spent on defense you have to remember China is basically Communist, they don't have to pay your ass to build shit. So just because you heard a news wire that China just built a prop plane pull your head out of your ass and wake up to reality. If this shit does get serious it will become overwhelmly serious quick. The Middle East has problems with the US, the far East has problems with the US and your dumbass is sitting back just playing these guys off.
That my friend is a dumbass thing to do.
A loop, by its nature, continues. If that didn't make sense, start reading this sentence again.
We haven't had a public breakthrough weapons technology as good as megaton nukes, since the 60's.
I don't think that is correct. The impact of precision guided munitions has already had a huge impact, and it continues to grow. The following except refers to events around Operation Desert Storm in 1992. At that time precision guided munitions were largely bombs and missiles, and a few expensive anti-tank artillery rounds. Now that capability is finding its way to more mundane artillery and mortars as well, not to mention much smaller missiles. The devices are becoming smaller, lighter, more precise, easier to use, and cheaper, so there will be a lot more of then in the future. A large strike by precision weapons could easily reverse the tide of battle in a way that nothing short of a nuclear weapon could in the past. Compared to nukes there are few drawbacks and many substantial advantages, such as not contaminating the battlefield and the fact that their use doesn't really have any of the political problem that nuclear weapons have.
IMPACT OF PRECISION WEAPONS ON AIR COMBAT OPERATIONS
We are writing a new and exciting chapter on air power--a chapter made possible in part by precision guided munitions (PGM). Air power advocates have long dreamed of a day when the weapon, platform, and willingness to use them properly would come together to make air power a decisive force. Today, those dreams are reality. One need only look back to our raids on Schweinfurt, Germany, in World War II to see how dramatically precision weapons have enhanced our capabilities over the last 50 years. Two raids of 300 B-17 bombers could not achieve with 3,000 bombs what two F-117s can do with only four. Precision weapons have truly given a new meaning to the term mass.
To shut down an industry in World War II, we were forced to target entire complexes because of the inaccuracy of our weapons; today we would need to hit only a couple of key buildings. What we historically achieved with volume we now can accomplish with precision. After all, the objective has never been to see how many bombs we could drop, but to produce results.
Precision weapons may also constitute a revolution in mobility. Of the 85,000 tons of bombs used in the Gulf War, only 8,000 tons (less than 10 percent) were PGMs, yet they accounted for nearly 75 percent of the damage. If we had wanted to, we could have airlifted all of our PGMs with just five C-5s or nine C-141s a day.2 . . . more
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
What is the circumference of the Earth? How far around is the Earth?
The average radius of the Earth is 3,959 miles (6,374 kilometers).
The equitorial diameter of the Earth (distance from one side of the Earth to the other at the equator) is about 7,926 miles.
The ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle (circumference/diameter)
is written as the symbol pi.
Pi is approximately 3.141592.
3.14159265
3.1415926535
Therefore, to determine the circumference from the diameter given above:
equitorial diameter x 3.141592 = equitorial circumference
| |
7,926 x 3.141592 = 24,900
| |
The earth has a circumference of approximately 24,900 miles.
More precisely the circumference of the earth
at the equator is 24,902 mi / 40,076 km.
Source:http://lyberty.com/encyc/articles/earth.html
5.1Mach = 1.7355km/s
Source: http://www.metric-conversions.org/speed/mach-to-kilometers-per-second.htm
It depends on what type of plane you are flying in and what air routes you plan to take. The typical duration is usually 2 days to 4 days.
For instance, an F-16 could theoretically circumspect the world in slightly less than 78 hours. But that's only possible if all the refuellings are conducted as in-flight refuellings, via airborne tankers. With luck and some good currents around, it might shave 2 hrs or so off the total time needed. But then again, unless you can stay awake for 3 days without sleep, its damn near impossible to do that.
For a civilian airliner like a Boeing 747 or an Airbus, it would take around the same amount of time, largely due to the need to bring it down to an airstrip for refuelling. But because of its huge internal fuel capacity, it could remain airborne far longer than an F-16.
To help you with your essay, I'm going to list the conditions required to accomplish this in a realistic manner:
1) Type of aircraft and its configuration
A civilian airliner jet (like those 2 mention earlier) typically have intercontinental ranges in excess of 3,000km. Also, they are capable of carrying huge quantities of internal fuel. Assuming you take a Boeing 747, removed all the seats in the passenger compartment and turn them, along with the cargo area into fuel storage, that range will be increased dramatically, from 3,000km to 7,000km.
Taking it further, by adding a refuelling receptor to the jet itself, similar to those used by the Air Force for its planes like the C-17 Globemaster III, the maximum range effectively becomes unlimited.
2) The human factor
Flight operations are no trivial task. While computers and automated intelligent system have made it easier for modern day pilots, the task of flying itself is still a tiring activity. Pilots need to maintain vigilance not only over the flight systems on the aircraft but also need to keep an eye out for weather conditions. Although the availability of long range radar and weather satellites have made detection of distance storms easier and earlier, its ultimately a human that takes actions to avoid it.
Maintaining wakefulness is a mentally exhausting affair, especially when is also an extremely dull affair, since an un-occupied mind is a bored mind, which translate into mental lethargy, which is also sleepiness. A human being usually loses his ability to react quickly after 12 hours of continuous flying. After 18 hours, that ability falls by 10% for every 2 hours after that.
3) Flight profile and weather conditions
The reason why airliner jets can sustain long range flights is because it cruises along at high altitudes. This is one of the aspects of aerodynamics, the higher you fly, the less fuel you burn, thus allow maximum milage per pound of fuel.
Air currents can aid and also hinders an aircraft's performance. With the proper air currents available (dependant on the time of
Memory is deceptive because it is colored by today's events. - Albert Einstein
A fascinating development, but I worry that the applications are limited to delivering bombs. Since the engine doesn't even function below hypersonic speeds, a plane and rocket are necessary to even launch them, and that naturally limits the size. As such, I don't particularly see the development as a positive thing in the near term, nor does it make me feel any better that the US military is the one doing it.
A hybrid jet/rocket engine like the SABRE is far more attractive, as it can deliver Skylon from runway to space, and is efficient throughout. The remarkable enabling technology is a precooler which cools incoming air from 1000C to -150C in milliseconds, and has already been successfully demonstrated.
Furthermore, there is a also a variant optimized for atmospheric flight called Scimitar, which uses the precooler with a high-bypass turbofan engine, giving it good efficiency and subsonic exhaust velocities at low speeds. This flexibility and broad efficiency allow the A2 to operate over land as well, overcoming the limitations of the Concorde. It has the potential to make commercial hypersonic flight ubiquitous.
For those of you who asked what fuel it uses:
Mg(OH)2
Top Secret.
The middle east has the same problem china has: The US Navy and lots of deep, deep water inbetween us and their hatred.
Mass producing american goods != coming up with new ones of their own. I don't think they're still fighting with bamboo sticks. I think they're fighting with Su-30 aircraft with a range of 3k miles and the j-20 with a range of 1,400 miles. They have a single aircraft carrier, but only a handful of either have a navallanding package. Their main battle tank was developed during the cold war and probably does not have active armor as all pictures of them have been shown with blocks of laminate armor (it's larger than active armor) and relies on lazer dazzlers to block incoming mistles, but cannot stop heat seaking, GPS guided, or visually guided weapons. It's a joke, but they have lots and lots of them.
Their infantry fights with the type 88 LMG, Type 81 (AK Clone), and QBZ-95 bullpup. The first two are great guns, the last is crap according to all reports I've ever seen. Either way, they have no soldiers with experience using them while people are shooting back and no way to get those soldiers to our shores.
They can launch mistles at us, but we can drop many of them into that large, wet ocean I've previously mentioned. Those that do make it to the US would be retaliated against with our own mistles which the chinese have no way of shooting down. They can launch chemical and nuclear weapons, but as Pearl Harbor and 9/11 both showed the world, when you attack the US, the US attacks back at a much higher ratio. We have the equipment and the men who are willing to use them. We have armies of volunteer citizen soldiers instead of conscripted subjects. Citizens fight much harder than subjects and run away far less often.
I sith "back just playing these guys off" after a long carrer sitting in wet damn holes with a rifle in my hand. I'm a nerd and slashdotter as a hobby, war has always been my profession. When I speak of war, it's as an expert, not an armchair general.
I am Russian. Don't even try this shit on me.
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
The whole Sabre engine is still conceptual and not one working engine has flown anywhere. Also, the SABRE relies totally on liquid helium to cool air and can't use any other gas. Since Helium supplies are very limited and the price is kept artificially low, no large commercial flight will ever be possible with this technology.
I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
Ease off the hyperbole.
1991: The first recorded successful scramjet test, when a modified Russian SAM was used as a booster for an engine which achieved supersonic combustion for 5 seconds.
1992: Another similar test, with French funding, pushed that out to 15 seconds.
2002: HySHot demonstrated the first controlled flight with supersonic combustion ...
2013: A milestone! A breakthrough!
"Mistles", eh?
So now the TLAs are secretly training Mistles to home in on the hated enemy? At least they're a good choice, the poor little bird ranges "over all of Europe and much of Asia. Many northern birds move south during the winter", perhaps this new strain of Avian flu that seems to be affecting a part of Asia is the result of an ongoing proof of concept exercise?
As for conscript armies, ill-trained or otherwise, just consider the use of human wave tactics. In Korea the US and its Allies were technically more advanced, but got pushed back to the current border by the Chinese and North Koreans pouring bodies into the fight. And that war still festers today, still heaving bile some 60 years later. What about 'nam? The casualty phobia engendered by that adventure still has the ability to spook the US. Getting a bit more modern we have the Iran Iraq war in the 80s, both sides threw people into the battlefield like confetti, to little effect. Admittedly they were techinically similar so the death rate was immense without any gain. My point is, you can have the worlds greatest volunteer army and still be overwhelmed by the army of a nation that has a resident population that exceeds your own by 300% or so, controls their media and can afford to soak up the casualties. As far as the US is concerned, there could be no repatriation of the fallen of such a conflict, there would be too many for the organisation to cope with, and a sentimental stay-at-home public would be horrified by the waves of bodies and bits of bodies that would otherwise return. "Some corner of a foreign field", eh?
You say you've been a practicing grunt and know of what you speak; "war is your profession". Well, good for you but you probably don't have the same degree of empathy with your fellow civilians as with your comrades in arms. Its well known that professionals can be blinkered and if we want a military example, the conflict of 1914-18 demonstrates that in spades on both sides. Lets be a little less gung-ho,eh?
SABRE is a sound concept which combines proven technologies in a new way, enabled by the novel heat exchanger. Not only has the heat exchanger has been demonstrated, the ESA has thoroughly examined the concept and finds no fault with the engine. The helium (which is not liquid by the way) is not consumed, nor are prohibitively large quantities required.
By your reasoning, there would never be any innovation at all, and we would live in a technologically static world. I do not understand the compulsion of people to endlessly and vehemently complain about the impossibility of perfectly sound concepts. Progress still happens, though probably at a considerably reduced rate thanks to this prevailing mindset.
Seriously, what is with the total lack of vision these days? Why is it that everything that can't already be purchased, is considered to be impossible? If not a sound concept with demonstrated components, what, if anything, will convince people to support innovation? I'm genuinely curious, as this seems to be holding up other critically important innovations such as molten salt reactors.
Yeah, this makes sense because America is the most ethical country on the planet.
-WolfWithoutAClause
"Gravity is only a theory, not a fact!"I realize it is fun to shit on America (and America does have its faults) but that wasn't their statement. Their statement was that China is less ethical. Beating up on strawmen is easy but isn't very intellectually stimulating.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
That's probably because they didn't have an effective bomber in that range.
Shall we speak of soldiers raping citizens and massive atrocities against prisoners of war or would you rather close the conversation now and accept your defeat? You're going to claim ethics and try to claim the moral high ground as a Russian? Really? Some of us know our history.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
It's not quite space shuttle speeds. It's also worth mentioning that the engine block in your car has a melting point far below that of the combustion temperature of the fuel, but the heat is conducted away. Similarly a metal skin will allow conduction away from the surface for the heat to be dealt with elsewhere, and presumably a combination of low air pressure at high altitude (and thus lower frictional heating than at sea level) and relatively short fight times would mean the entire aircraft wouldn't have time to overheat before it gets to the destination.
It does mean however that carbon fibre reinforced plastic is probably a very bad idea for the skin while aluminium or titanium are going to conduct surface heat away at a rapid rate. There's going to be a lot of volume compared with the surface area of the leading edges so there's a lot of places for the heat to go.
Four things. First, Professor Ray Stalker is indeed a credit to Australia and I look forward to his continued success.
Second, the article is about the successful test of a US Air Force test vehicle. They are entitled to celebrate their success.
Third, your history is a bit off.
Scramjets integrate air and space
Scramjets have a long and active development history in the United States. On the basis of theoretical studies started in the 1940s, the U.S. Air Force, Navy, and NASA began developing scramjet engines in the late 1950s. Since then, many hydrogenand hydrocarbon-fueled engine programs have helped scramjet technology evolve to its current state. The most influential of these efforts was NASA’s National Aerospace Plane (NASP) program, established in 1986 to develop a vehicle with speed greater than Mach 15 and horizontal takeoff and landing capabilities. The program ended in 1993, but the original NASP engine design, significantly modified by NASA, provided the foundation for the power plant used during the X-43A’s recent flight.
Fourth, you diminish yourself when you associate yourself with Alex Belits' bile filled, historically illiterate, diatribes.
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
This whole thread ^ is the reason why we have Governments. If regular people were left in charge, the entire world would be choking to death from a Nuclear Winter.
China has an emmense population of genius level citizens and have basically perfected mass production.
This is funny! The Company I worked for sent several china manufacturers clear plans that were accurate for a product, a LED replacement for a 4' fluorescent fixture.
We ordered a case as a trial from 8 different manufacturers there, They knew that we would order 100,000 more if the product was right and good.
7 of the companies made them in the wrong size. 1 inch too long, 1 inch too short, one looked like they used people with hacksaws as none of the cuts on the extruded aluminum was straight. etc.. Pretty much all of them were garbage from all makers. 1 had them the right length but designed them for 120V AC and not the 208 volts that is common in office buildings here and was PRINTED CLEARLY ON THE DRAWINGS and in the specification documentation that was very clear.
I am guessing that the China definition of "perfection" is not what we see in Europe or in the USA.
No they cant manufacture anything "perfect"..
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
3 replies. 3 complaints about the spelling of a single word. Without bothering to read the initial point, or any of the 3 replies, further, I award the point to the parent post.
I come here for the love
He's just pointing out that "lees ethical" is a comparison.
So, less ethical than who or what?
You seem to acknowledge that it's not the USA, with it's faults and all.
Such an acknowledgment would actually recognize the original poster's ethics comment as a strawman.
Cause... If it's not USA and China ethics we're comparing, tossing in ethics is a meaningless digression in a form of a generalization that borders on chauvinist propaganda on one side and racism on the other.
"Chinese have fewer ethics! BAM! We've beaten them on the moral battlefield already!"
A strawman if I ever saw one.
Though, in OP's defense, probably an unconscious one.
Heck, his post is actually praising Chinese an prophesying them as winners or at least on the same level as the USA, in some imaginary battle.
It's just that Chinese have been memed into that position of inherently lower morality through centuries of sinophobic propaganda.
They've been yellow peril and godless commies for generations (and if that doesn't mean they have no morals...).
It's perfectly understandable that they are also nothing but thieves and copiers of other people's tech and makers of cheap junk practically incapable of creativity.
And that they would fight harder and with fewer ethics - i.e. fight dirty.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Rockwell worked on plans for a hypersonic spaceplane powered by a scramjet, using DARPA funds, starting as far back as the early 1980s. The X-30 project was scraped, but later revived into the X-43 project. The X-43 was actually tested first in June 2001, over a year before the Australian HyShot, although admittedly, the test was a failure, and HyShot was the first successful scramjet flight.
No one is questioning the Australian's expertise and merit in the field of scramjet propulsion, but it's foolish to think they are the only ones in the game. England developed the first turbojet engine, but that's not to say German and the US weren't hot on their heals. Besides, no one is claiming this is the first scramjet flight. The claim is that this is the first scramjet flight using hydrocarbon fuels, which are much easier to manage and store than the cryogenic hydrogen used by ever flight previous.
I can tell you what happened at the Chinese companies, as I have seen this done before:
"We have a small order we don't really want, but we do not want to insult the person asking for the example by refusing outright. We'll send them something that looks terrible so they pick someone else".
Because frankly, 100.000 fluorescent fixtures is a tiny order for manufacturing that is going on Chinese scale right now. Most will simply not want to take it.
I'm talking here about the first part of your post. The whole strawman thing.
All you're doing is going round-and-round inside a circular argument.
China's ethics is bad, cause compared to America's ethics which IS bad China's ethics is bad, disagreeing is "completely delusional or intellectually dishonest" - ergo, China is "demonstrably worse".
BTW... do you even recall what was it you called a strawman? Here, let me refresh your memory.
Yeah, this makes sense because America is the most ethical country on the planet.
And this is you, just now.
America has had some serious ethical violations recently and I believe our country is less because of them. I am ashamed and dishonored on behalf of my country. What we have done is horrific and may have consequences for years to come.
So... Questioning comparison to USA's ethics is a strawman, BUT pointing out those ethics as bankrupt and then using that position to "prove" China's ethics as worse is OK?
Sorry, but that's not even a strawman.
What it is though, is a case of confirmation bias and conditioning with stereotypes.
Same way many people in the USA equate socialism with communism, with a foregone conclusion that it's "bad" - while being fans of Star Trek and Federation which is a complete communist utopia.
Now, besides branding and comparing "ethics" of an entire country/nation/people being an utterly nonsensical generalization, actual comparison between USA and China would lead to only one result.
Namely that, should "ethics" of a country be judged by it's actions (trying to make that generalization at least SOMEWHAT based on facts) - USA has no ethical leg to stand on.
It would be a kettle calling kettle a kettle.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens