WASHINGTON: An experimental aircraft
has set a record for hypersonic flight, flying more than 3 minutes at Mach 6
— six times the speed of sound.
The X-51A Waverider was
released from a B-52 Stratofortress off the southern California coast on
Wednesday morning, the air force reported on its website. Its scramjet engine
accelerated the vehicle to Mach 6, and it flew autonomously for 200 seconds
before losing acceleration. At that point the test was
terminated.
The air force said the previous record for a hypersonic
scramjet burn was 12 seconds.
"We are ecstatic to have accomplished
many of the X-51A test points during its first hypersonic mission," said Charlie
Brink, an X-51A program manager with the Air Force Research Laboratory at
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.
"We equate this leap in engine
technology as equivalent to the post-World War II jump from propeller-driven
aircraft to jet engines," Brink said.
The Waverider was built for the
Air Force by Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne and Boeing Co.
Joe Vogel,
Boeing's director of hypersonics, said, "This is a new world record and sets the
foundation for several hypersonic applications, including access to space,
reconnaissance, strike, global reach and commercial
transportation."
Four X-51A cruisers have been built for the air
force, and the remaining three will be tested this fall.
"No test is
perfect," Brink said, "and I'm sure we will find anomalies that we will need to
address before the next flight."
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