Hypersonic speed ! huh ?

Post date: 16-Aug-2012 08:34:04

Stumble across this , thought it might make for some interesting reading ..."It was the third known test-flight for the X-51A Waverider, so named because it rides the shock waves caused by its high speed to reach even higher speeds." How fast you ask ...?"A rocket booster was due to accelerate the aircraft to more than 7,000 kilometres per hour, before the Scramjet accelerates the craft to almost 10,000 kilometres per hour for a duration of five minutes. " WOW !!! I suppose it would still be some time till we start using or flying at these speeds ....or for that mattar want to ...."The third test flight took place on 14 August 2012. The X-51 was to make a 300 second, or 5 minute, experimental flight at speeds of five times the speed of sound, more than 3,600 mph.After separating from its rocket booster, the craft lost control and crashed into the Pacific.^[A statement by the Air Force Research Laboratory indicates a failure of the tail control surface as the cause.yeah , think I'll stay clear of Hypersonic ...SOURCE : IOL and WikiPedia

For those of you who are wondering what Scarmjet is ...

A scramjet (supersonic combustion ramjet) is a variant of a ramjet airbreathing jet engine in which combustion takes place in supersonic airflow. As in ramjets, a scramjet relies on high vehicle speed to forcefully compress and decelerate the incoming air before combustion (hence ramjet), but whereas a ramjet decelerates the air to subsonic velocities before combustion, airflow in a scramjet is supersonic throughout the entire engine. This allows the scramjet to efficiently operate at extremely high speeds: theoretical projections place the top speed of a scramjet between Mach 12 (9,100 mph; 15,000 km/h) and Mach 24 (18,000 mph; 29,000 km/h). The fastest air-breathing aircraft is a SCRAM jet design, the NASA X-43A which reached Mach 9.6. For comparison, the second fastest^[1] air-breathing aircraft, the manned SR-71 Blackbird, has a cruising speed of Mach 3.2 (2,100 mph). Or Check this site about Scarmjets , Awesome stuff ....