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from the Los-Angeles-to-Boston-in-less-than-an-hour dept.
In May of 2013, the Air Force successfully tested the X-51 WaveRider — an uncrewed, hypersonic "scramjet" capable of reaching Mach 5.1, or more than five times the speed of sound — by flying it at hypersonic speeds over the Pacific Ocean. Now, the Air Force is looking ahead to its next aircraft.
Air Force Chief Scientist Mica Endsley told Military.com this week that the agency is working on the next generation of its hypersonic vehicle. While the X-51 was a test designed to show that a scramjet craft was feasible, the Air Force now wants a vehicle that can "operate at the kind of temperatures you have when you are going at hypersonic speeds," and plans on building a guidance system that can also work at extreme speeds. The goal is to produce the new craft by 2023.
That is, of course, a long while away, and the US military has had some trouble with hypersonic defense technology. The X-51 was only successful after a string of high-profile failures, and last year, a hypersonic missile being tested by Department of Defense exploded during takeoff.
http://www.theverge.com/2015/6/2/8708255/x-51-waverider-mach-5-2023
Original Submission
(Score: 1) by beardedchimp on Friday June 05 2015, @11:44AM
It's not just about going Mach 5. Unlike ramjets, scamjets don't need to slow the air down to subsonic speeds before combustion, this makes it very efficient and sets a high upper bound for possible velocities. The upper limit is above 20,000Km/hr!
Existing plane velocities have stagnated under current technologies and we are not going to push them much faster without an engineering leap like these things. Concorde failed because it cost too much to run due to massive fuel usage, these things could potentially bring supersonic flight back to the masses.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday June 05 2015, @04:27PM
Concorde was officially breaking even up until the accident, which is better than most flagship supertech usually does.
It failed commercially because the US banned it for NIH violation.
Boeing and Airbus need 10-figure amounts to develop passenger planes using gradual increments of tech. The next passenger revolution will come from a country that will put the prestige of the Best Passenger Plane ahead of the short-term financial considerations, and still have enough commercial gravitas to get it FAA approved (India or China, in a nutshell). Though we're getting closer to the point where they can give a big middle finger to the FAA/Europeans and just massively sell planes to other countries.
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Saturday June 06 2015, @02:35AM
It was retired, not banned. Reasons are many: outdated electronics/avionics, maintenance costs, slump in air travel after 9-11, and theva awful crash in France didn't help either. It just wasn't cost effective.
Good riddance, that thing was ear splitting loud. I grew up in south Queens, Ozone Park just north of Howard Beach. You always knew when one was landing or taking off. One day at a block party in Howard Beach I experienced first hand a concord coming in for a landing. The jet roar was so loud it physically hurt to listen to. A monster truck show isn't as loud. Most people just cover their ears. Howard beach residents threw parties after that aircraft was retired. And rightfully so.