X-43A Hits Mach 7

quiggy writes "As previously reported, NASA tested the X-43A yesterday. The results are in, and the scramjet hit Mach 7, setting a new speed record. CNN is also reporting the story, with a note that a similar jet could be tested by the end of the year, hopefully reaching Mach 10."

Microkernel

[shakparl]

at version 7?? i have been asleep too long.

But at that speed...

[Alt_Cognito]

They will need to go back and save the whales etc...

Mach 7?

[RadRafe]

Isn't that a shaver? You know, the one with seven blades?

Mach 10? Mach 10?

[burgburgburg]

The engines canna take it, Cap'n.

4 posts...

[chimpo13]

and not a single Speed Racer joke. I'll reload in 30 seconds.

How soon before...

[DoctorPepper]

I can get one of these for my Toyota Corolla? Man, that sure would cut my commute time down!

Re:sublight speed ;)

[Fisher99]

So officially they can now call them sublight engines.

How fast ..

[the eric conspiracy]

new speed record

African or European?

First Mach 10...

[Evanrude]

Then Quantum Leap. Where will Scott Bakula show up next??

Re:CNN gets it wrong

[openmtl]

The new trans-Atlantic flight time is now 6 hours....

Midtown to JFK - 1 hour (off peak)
JFK TIA/Homeland/Patriot-enabled security -> Plane seat - 3 Hours
US -> UK flight time in new Mach 10 rocket - 2 Hours

Total time 6 hours. Your bags though would arrive 2 days later assuming that they hadn't been blown up in an anti-terrorist "controlled explosion" at LAX.

Re:CNN slipping,...

[dave420]

Yet Fox still managed to blame it not hitting mach 10 on the pink-commie-leftie democrats, and "their heathen ilk"...

heh.

Re:CNN should take a look at the history books...

[wisebabo]

Yeah but they are going the long way around.

Yeah!!

[the eric conspiracy]

NASA overclockers RULE!!

Re:Mach 10

[dynoman7]

mach 10 = 20461245.5 furlongs per fortnight

science vs. lay

[MasTRE]

I clicked the first link and saw that NASA only used Mach units to report speed. Then, before clicking the CNN link, I made a bet with myself that they would include mph. Needless to say, I won :)

From the CNN article

[badmonkey]

"The space agency's dogged pursuit of extreme speed, officials hope, will ultimately make space flight easier to accomplish.

It also could drastically cut the time of commercial flights -- perhaps shortening the trip between New York and London to less than five hours."

New York to London in less than five hours! That's heresy, that can't [concordesst.com] be done!

Re:4 posts...

[danratherfan]

Here he comes, here comes X-43a
He's a demon with a scramjet
He's a demon and he gets his own oxygen from the atmosphere

He's gainin' on you so you better look alive
He's busy traveling at a powerful Mach5! (or seven, or ten)

And when the odds are against him because they cuuuuuut his funding
You bet your life X-43a, will end up dead in a hanger some where.

Go X-43a, go X-43a, go X-43a, goooooooo.

There wasn't anything left to examine

[Anonymous Coward]

Um, the airframe hit the ocean going several thousand miles per hour. There wasn't anything left larger than a dime.

Re:At the present rate

[alphorn]

it's not impossible, it's just infinitely improbable.

Re:sublight speed ;)

[atomicdragon]

I think the poster means the velocity's direction does not matter if you are ignoring friction. If you were to travel with escape velocity towards the center of the Earth, without hitting something, you would come out of the other side of the gravity well with the same velocity at the same altitude and would be ready to go. However, in the real world the Earth is kind of the way and hitting it at escape velocity would be one heck of demonstration of friction. In that case your velocity direction determines how your kinetic energy is divided between liquefying your craft and spreading the remaining parts across the planet.

Re:Armchair physicists are idiots

[0x0d0a]

4) The toyota corolla attachment won't be out until 2006.

Bullshit. Toyota announced that they will not be selling *any* vehicles with the scramjet until it completes product safety retesting, which will be finished in 2008 at the earliest. Apparently, the flux capacitor doesn't perform as expected above about 88 mph.

Re:Not exactly the same...

[Anonymous Coward]

Bullshit! NASA are always a step behind poorly funded universities.

Re:sublight speed ;)

[SnowZero]

Well, it did happen a long time ago...