We mentioned yesterday that the X-51A WaveRider managed to break the hypersonic record for the longest flight of a ramjet engine. In an update to that story with thought we would offer you a video for you to see its first test flight, which you can see below.
The X-51 rocket was dropped from a B-52 bomber, with the footage being shot by a U.S. Air Force Pilot. The flight was meant to last for 300 seconds, but only managed to sustain a speed of Mach 5 for 200 seconds.
The time and speed fell short of what Boeing had hoped, but according to our recent post, the scramjet test actually managed mach 6 and that they shut the engine off early as planned – although there is no proof of this.
The X-51A WaveRider is powered by a Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne scramjet motor and uses a mix of ethylene and JP-7 jet fuel. For more details on this read Noel McKeegan’s article on Gizmag
Google+
900+Twitter
5,500+Facebook
19,800+