NASA to test supersonic drone this month

Yahoo! News ^ | 3/17/04 | AFP

[NormsRevenge]

WASHINGTON, March 17 (AFP) -

NASA (news - web sites) announced plans to launch a supersonic drone later this month designed to fly 6,000 miles (10,000 km) per hour, nearly three times the standing jet airspeed record.

The X-43A prototype, to be launched at Edwards Air Force Base in California on March 27, supercedes one that crashed in 2001 tests.

NASA said the flight could break the speed record for a jet engine and provide greater access to space.

The current airspeed record, 3,529 kilometers (2,193 miles) per hour, or Mach 3.2, has been held by the SR-71 "Blackbird" spy plane since 1964.

Another experimental plane, the X-15, reached Mach 6.7, but with a rocket engine.

The X-43A appears futuristic, flat and small -- only 3.6 meters (12 feet) long with a wingspan of 1.5 meters (five feet).

NASA hopes to fly the plane at Mach 5 or 6,000 kilometers (3,600 miles) per hour, slightly over half of its designed capability.

The prototype is the result of 20 years of research into "scramjet" (Supersonic Combustible Ramjet) technology, which taps the atmosphere for oxygen and does away with heavy oxygen tanks used to feed rocket engines at high altitudes.

The smaller, lighter power plant allows the X-43A and its successors to dedicate that weight to heavier payloads and so reduce costs.

[NormsRevenge]

This 1999 NASA (news - web sites) artist's rendition shows the X-43A hypersonic research aircraft as it would appear in flight. NASA announced plans to launch a supersonic drone later this month designed to fly 6,000 miles (10,000 km) per hour, nearly three times the standing jet airspeed record.(NASA)

[hookman]

Better than these?

[spetznaz]

Why should we have this drone? Huh? Couldn't the money be spent on ensuring there is no trash in NYC? And once that is done couldn't we assert that North American squirrels are actually different from their British cousins! And did we ever check how much more lethal a Cheeseburger is compared to a non-filter cigarrete?

And as for the military .....what for? The Europeans have an ok military ....let them protect us.

By the way ....sarcasm off.

[LibLieSlayer]

I actually watched a special on NASA TV about this program. A manned test flight (X43C) will be ready in 2007. Development on this craft is far beyond what I had suspected. It looked awesome under the wing of a B-52 on its maiden unmanned test flight (simulated drop test from the B-52's wing).

NASA also had a segment on the test firing of this Ramjet engine. It is bad-to-da-bone!

LLS