US Air Force scramjet test sees Spaceships in future

Christian Science Monitor ^ | 6/17/2010 | Jeremy Hsu

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

A recent United States Air Force scramjet test has hinted at a future where hypersonic vehicles streak through the sky at many times the speed of sound around the world, and perhaps even open up access to space.

The experimental X-51A Waverider used a rocket booster and an air-breathing scramjet to reach a speed of Mach 5 and achieve the longest hypersonic flight ever powered by such an engine on May 26. That technology might not only deliver cargo quickly to different parts of the globe, but could also transform the space industry and spawn true space planes that take off and land from the same runway.

The wealth of possibilities offered by aerospace vehicles that can ride their own shockwaves likely explains why the project has drawn support from the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA), NASA, and the U.S. Navy.

"We could have in the future such things as hypersonic weapons that fly 600 nautical miles in 10 minutes," said Charlie Brink, X-51A program manager with the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, during a June 1 teleconference. [Most destructive space weapon concepts.]

Scramjet engines can also eliminate the need for much of the huge oxidizer tanks carried by rockets, because the engines capture oxygen from the air to mix with the fuel while moving at hypersonic speeds. That would permit future space-lift systems or space planes to carry greater payloads and operate more efficiently, Brink said.

[GeronL]

Those ships might look like an exaggerated SR-71