Hypersonic flight record broken...

[yank51]

Read about it here:

http://home.myhughesnet.com/news/read.php?ps=1018&rip_id=%3CD9FV4FD80%40news.ap.org%3E&_LT=HOME_LARSDCCLM_UNEWS

[Matt Wynn]

nice and a good improvement over the last Hypersonic flight duration... heres the X-51A

http://www.intell.rtaf.mi.th/intellFilesUpload/intellnews/52542-02.jpg
http://luckybogey.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/090717-f-0289b-063.jpg?w=510&h=364

[Lionheart]

Very cool.. However.. (uh oh), I still think we have craft that do far greater speeds then this, operational 10 years ago. Not a doubt in my mind. The Aurora was said to already be running hyper Mach on pure Hydrogen (or something that combusts in high atmo at extreme vehicle/shock wave cone compression environments) and even the speeds of the BlackBird SR-71 are still classified and some say it could possibly slingshot into space though it couldnt control itself out there without manuvering jets.

Goodness.. was the Aurora over 12 years ago?

This little rocket toy, in my humble opinion, is just a front. I could be wrong... But... am I?

heh heh....

[empeck]

Cool. They are still working on scramjet engines? I wonder if they'll make a manned aircraft equipped with scramjets.

[Railrunner130]

I've read enough about the SR-71 to say yes, it was fast. However, the performance charts ended at Mach 3.3. The crews needed a waiver to take it past 2.91 and 65,000 feet I think. Functional Check Flights prior to delivery went to 3.1.

As for the Aurora, Ben Rich wrote in his book that it was Lockheed's entry into the ATB (B-2) program. It was never built.

I think the sad truth is that the U-2, satellites, Global Hawk and Predator (plus a bunch of smaller drones) are all we have. I don't believe there is much really going on in terms of manned reconnaissance. Especially in the high speed relm.

[tigisfat]

Very cool.. However.. (uh oh), I still think we have craft that do far greater speeds then this, operational 10 years ago. Not a doubt in my mind. The Aurora was said to already be running hyper Mach on pure Hydrogen (or something that combusts in high atmo at extreme vehicle/shock wave cone compression environments) and even the speeds of the BlackBird SR-71 are still classified and some say it could possibly slingshot into space though it couldnt control itself out there without manuvering jets.

Goodness.. was the Aurora over 12 years ago?

This little rocket toy, in my humble opinion, is just a front. I could be wrong... But... am I?

heh heh....

we may very well have aircraft this fast, but the supposed "aurora" was the project name for the b-2. When the funding was leaked, it spawn fantastical rumors of a hypersonic plane. That's all the aurora is, the b-2, or 'project aurora'.

[Wing_Z]

Very cool.. However.. (uh oh), I still think we have craft that do far greater speeds then this...

Aerospike engine...I think they saw Mach 10 briefly on a subscale test.
The X-33 programme went "Dark" ten years ago so there's bound to be something out there.

But getting a scramjet running reliably is very exciting news.

[Ken Stallings]

The main challenge here isn't the engine, though that technology is very advanced in concept and application. The main challenge is the heat. Materials engineering is having a hard time coping with the heat generated by such extreme speeds in the atmosphere. To endure this speed and cope with the associated heat for this long is the real achievement.

In theory, the scramjet can achieve Mach 10+. And this aircraft sustained Mach 6 -- about 4,100 miles per hour. The challenge is to develop materials that can withstand the heat generated over the duration of the flight, and be able to withstand the cooling that comes when it slows down to land. When metals heat and cool like this, the expansion and contraction alone are signficant problems. What the SR-71 overcame was mind-boggling. To more than double that speed is worse than the difference between designing an SR-71 relative to the X-1!

BTW: To put 4,100 mph into perspective. You can circumnavigate the earth's equator in about six hours!

Ken

[tigisfat]

I've read enough about the SR-71 to say yes, it was fast. However, the performance charts ended at Mach 3.3. The crews needed a waiver to take it past 2.91 and 65,000 feet I think. Functional Check Flights prior to delivery went to 3.1.

As for the Aurora, Ben Rich wrote in his book that it was Lockheed's entry into the ATB (B-2) program. It was never built.

I think the sad truth is that the U-2, satellites, Global Hawk and Predator (plus a bunch of smaller drones) are all we have. I don't believe there is much really going on in terms of manned reconnaissance. Especially in the high speed relm.

Just a few small corrections here:

The SR-71's design cruising speed was mach 3.2 at 80,000 feet. The crews did not need waivers from anyone to fly past 2.91 and 65,000 feet, as the aforementioned 3.2 and 80+ was part of normal mission planning. In combat ops, it has been noted and published in non-classified sources that SR-71s could easily see 3.6 if the conditions were right, such as when in good air outrunning missiles over Libya. See author Brian Schul's descriptions of doing so in 1986.

I read Ben Rich's autobiography as well, entitled 'Skunk Works'. Aurora was not Lockheed's entry, the whole project was named Aurora. Like I said above, the funding was leaked and the public started wacko rumors about the whole thing, including the F-19 model kit. Whether the Lockheed aircraft was built or not is classified. What we do know is that models of it existed in the offices of very important people. It was close enough to the B-2 Spirit design that many mistook one for the other.