X-51A Scramjet Flight

[yak52driver]

I did some searches and couldn't find any posts on this yet, so apologies if this is a repost. The USAF, DARPA and other agencies successfully flew the X-51A, a hypersonic scramjet powered aircraft that flew under power for over 200 seconds. The previous scramjet record for powered flight was 12 seconds. There are three more flights planned in the fall. The aircraft is initially powered by a rocket that gets it up to speed so that the scramjet can ignite. Pretty cool flight technology.

http://www.afmc.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123206524

 

[Beans]

Awesome. Cue the Popular Science articles about flying 1000 pax NYC - Sydney in 20 minutes...

 

[FLY_USMC]

Until there's a person in it they can send my grill to Mach 10 and I wouldn't give two shits.

 

[yak52driver]

Until there's a person in it they can send my grill to Mach 10 and I wouldn't give two shits.

I hope at some point in the future there is a person in it and given the chance I'd like to be one of the pilots to fly it. What a rush flying that fast and that high.

 

[insanebikerboy]

What a rush flying that fast and that high.

At 30,000 feet with no external cueing the only thing you'd have to see for reference is the airspeed gauge.

 

[yak52driver]

At 30,000 feet with no external cueing the only thing you'd have to see for reference is the airspeed gauge.

Good point, I didn't think about the lack of external reference at higher altitudes.