Boeing X-51A WaveRider Sets Record

Ermm great, but it looks like a flipping drone missile.
Experimental unmanned aircraft, dropped into the sea, flew for a couple of hundred miles, was brought up to speed by a solid fuel rocket unit which it then separated from.
I fail to see anything truely wonderful in this.
 
Hikari Kisugi said:
Ermm great, but it looks like a flipping drone missile.
Experimental unmanned aircraft, dropped into the sea, flew for a couple of hundred miles, was brought up to speed by a solid fuel rocket unit which it then separated from.
I fail to see anything truely wonderful in this.
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It's a test bed for cutting edge scramjet technology though, it all has to start somewhere.
 
The technology involved in this is the first of its kind, the same way the v2 rockets paved the way for the space race pretty much all big jumps are made with military funding!

KaHn
 
Ah but they don't run from scratch, they boost from rocket fuelled 4. point something mach to 5 point something mach?
Hmm, maybe prove interesting later then.
 
Going from supersonic flight to hypersonic flight is a major achievement in aviation.
Remember Concorde, it set a record flying at Mach 2 in 1970, it flew London to New York in 3 hours at around Mach 2.

It's early days yet, & it requires a rocket to give a starting push, but it's developing technology.

Forty three years later we are now just breaking in to Mach 5.1 terrority, may be, in our life time, or our children's life time, we may just have another Concorde flying at Mach 5.:eek:
 
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Super sonic to hypersonic, is there some different barrier that I am unaware of, bar the actual speed being a bit faster, is there any physical difference in super to hyper?

-edit
Also you mention concord, which nearly 45 years ago flew at mach2.
Now 45 years later, no passenger planes at all do such a thing, there is no supersonic travel for the worlds population, simply military.
 
It's down to the drag curve I believe. It doesn't increase in line, it gets to a point where you need like 16 times more thrust to break one speed than you would for a speed not far below. I'm texting this from my phone so it's just a quick input. Sorry for lack of detail or facts lol.
 
Hikari Kisugi said:
there is no supersonic travel for the worlds population, simply military.
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Even then it isnt getting much faster, in the decade of the EE lightning jets were getting into the M2 range, the latest models are slowing down again, the F35 tops out at M1.6 and a lot of the older M2+ interceptors are being phased out.
 
Hedge said:
It's down to the drag curve I believe. It doesn't increase in line, it gets to a point where you need like 16 times more thrust to break one speed than you would for a speed not far below. I'm texting this from my phone so it's just a quick input. Sorry for lack of detail or facts lol.
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Its and square law mate, basically for every time you double your speed you need 4 times as much force.

Then you get issues with supersonic shock waves and drag associated with that.

KaHn
 
dalin80 said:
Even then it isnt getting much faster, in the decade of the EE lightning jets were getting into the M2 range, the latest models are slowing down again, the F35 tops out at M1.6 and a lot of the older M2+ interceptors are being phased out.
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I think the favouring of long distance supercruising rather than short-term faster speeds are favourable these days, with the added ability to just afterburn anyway if needed. I know the EEL had it, but limited.
 
Hikari Kisugi said:
Super sonic to hypersonic, is there some different barrier that I am unaware of, bar the actual speed being a bit faster, is there any physical difference in super to hyper?
Click to expand...

Would seem like its a thrust to weight ratio issue predominantly, it appears to go up exponentially. Something to do with air entering the system gets too hot at high speed to make sufficient difference to the thrust so you then have to start carrying your own oxygen, which ups weight massively and makes the engines heavier.

Wikipedia Skylon

Would be fantastic if it could be as cheap as they think, from £15000 to £650 per kg into orbit. Though there always seems to be a lot of wishful thinking in high technology, though I suppose someone has to come through at some time!
 
Hikari Kisugi said:
Super sonic to hypersonic, is there some different barrier that I am unaware of, bar the actual speed being a bit faster, is there any physical difference in super to hyper?

-edit
Also you mention concord, which nearly 45 years ago flew at mach2.
Now 45 years later, no passenger planes at all do such a thing, there is no supersonic travel for the worlds population, simply military.
Click to expand...

What's the point of space travel then?
 
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