NASA Testing Supersonic X-51A Jet Tomorrow 214
First time accepted submitter littlesparkvt writes "The NASA and the Pentagon's experimental aircraft could go from NY to London in about an hour. With a cost of 140 million dollars USD. During the test the X51-A will reach speeds of 1700 meters a second and climb to an altitude of 70,000 feet."
1700 miles a second????? (Score:2, Informative)
That would be 6.12 MILLION miles per hour. Somehow, I doubt that.
Another article with more background... (Score:5, Informative)
...is here [wired.com]
Re:1700 miles a second????? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Cost (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Cost (Score:2, Informative)
It's not supersonic, it's hypersonic (Score:5, Informative)
Above Mach 5 or so you have to start considering different physics about the air flow.
Re:Cost (Score:5, Informative)
Correct. Turns out that the 'Raptor' problem is, in fact, related to incorrect inflation of the "Combat Edge" chest corset of G-suits. This incorrect inflation also occurred on F-15s and F-16s but no one noticed. Only on the F-22 was it noticed/significant.
Just in case you think I'm full of shit, here's a citation quoting USAF sources:
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2012/08/01/air-force-confident-f22-oxygen-riddle-solved.html [military.com]
With that (apparently 20-year old) problem solved, Raptor is back in the air and back to Top Dog.