{"id":14266,"date":"2004-03-29T15:28:00","date_gmt":"2004-03-29T15:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.driko.org\/blog\/2004\/03\/29\/x-43-scramjet-breaks-mach-7\/"},"modified":"2004-03-29T15:28:00","modified_gmt":"2004-03-29T15:28:00","slug":"x-43-scramjet-breaks-mach-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.driko.org\/blog\/2004\/03\/29\/x-43-scramjet-breaks-mach-7\/","title":{"rendered":"X-43 Scramjet Breaks Mach 7"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"X-43<\/a>
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NASA reports that its X-43A hypersonic research aircraft flew successfully on Saturday<\/a>, breaking speed records and marking a new milestone in aircraft propulsion design<\/a>. The X-43A Hyper-X<\/a> (nice gallery here<\/a>) was attached to a modifed Pegasus rocket that was flown to launching altitude by a B-52B mother ship. Once separated from the B-52, the Pegasus rocket boosted the X-43 to 95,000 feet, allowing the scramjet to operate for about 10 seconds, the first time an aircraft with that type of propulsion has flown freely. The aircraft reached a speed of over 5,000 miles an hour, just over Mach 7, a record speed for an aircraft with an air-breathing engine. The X-43 flew for several minutes before landing in the Pacific Ocean as planned; there were no plans to recover the aircraft.<\/p>\n

A scramjet<\/a>, or supersonic combustion ramjet, is a type of engine that uses the supersonic speed of the air being forced through the engine for its compression rather than a conventional jet engine’s compressor blade cycle. Although mechanically a lot simpler than conventional jet engine, the aerodynamics of the scramjet are quite complex; this series of pages does a good job explaining some of the science behind the flight<\/a>. This first successful flight (a previous flight in 2001 ended in failure when the Pegasus booster malfunctioned) is a very significant advance in aircraft propulsion design; as CNN<\/i> points out, “Some observers compared Saturday’s accomplishment to the Wright brothers’ first powered flight.” I’m very happy to see something that I studied only as theory in college come to fruition…<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NASA reports that its X-43A hypersonic research aircraft flew successfully on Saturday, breaking speed records and marking a new milestone in aircraft propulsion design. The X-43A Hyper-X (nice gallery here) was attached to a modifed Pegasus rocket that was flown to launching altitude by a B-52B mother ship. Once separated from the B-52, the Pegasus … <\/p>\n

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