Air Force Sets Date To Fly Mach-6 Scramjet 252
coondoggie writes "The US Air Force said it was looking to launch its 14-foot long X-51A Waverider on its first hypersonic flight test attempt May 25. The unmanned X-51A is expected to fly autonomously for five minutes, after being released from a B-52 Stratofortress off the southern coast of California. The Waverider is powered by a supersonic combustion scramjet engine, and will accelerate to about Mach 6 as it climbs to nearly 70,000 feet. Once flying, the X-51 will transmit vast amounts of data to ground stations about the flight, then splash down into the Pacific. There are no plans to recover the flight test vehicle, one of four built, the Air Force stated."
Geotaggers, your mission should you choose to.. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Umm... (Score:2, Funny)
whoosh?
Re:Umm... (Score:5, Funny)
In this case, it's splash!
Re:Wait a minute.... (Score:2, Funny)
to be honest, they have dumped and abandoned nuclear weapons in the ocean.
one plane wont worry the big cheeses
Re:Great step forward (Score:5, Funny)
They can't recover it because it already came back yesterday.
So the test flight will be a resounding, albeit puzzling, success.
Re:About time..... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Great step forward (Score:3, Funny)
A mach here, a mach there and soon you are talking real machs.
Old McDonald had a scramjet?
Re:About time..... (Score:3, Funny)
Or that cheese comes in a can? Wait, what were we talking about again?
Not just any can. A spray can.
Re:At least. (Score:3, Funny)
How long we have been waiting for this? 10, 20 years?
Maybe you've been waiting that long. Some of us have faithfully adhered to the proverb, "never wait for a scramjet."
Re:Great step forward (Score:4, Funny)
can people live with loud bangs as a routine?
The evidence where I live (Valencia, Spain; a city addicted to pyrotechnics) is that yes, we can.
Welcome to hong kong. ;)
Welcome to my hood!