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  • Hypersonic jet Waverider fails Mach 6 test

    Is this thing ever going to work and is it worth the effort?



    BBC News - Hypersonic jet Waverider fails Mach 6 test


    15 August 2012 Last updated at 19:15 GMT


    The US Air Force has said an attempt to fly its hypersonic jet Waverider at Mach 6 (3,600mph; 5795km/h) failed.

    The unmanned aircraft had been designed to fly at six times the speed of sound after being dropped from a B-52 bomber.

    But officials said that a faulty control fin prevented it from starting its supersonic-combustion ramjet engine, and the craft was lost.

    It marks the second time in a row that the Air Force has been unable to test the technology as planned.

    The latest attempt had sought to fly at its maximum speed for five minutes.

    But a spokesman said that a problem was recognised 16 seconds after a rocket booster was triggered to increase its velocity, ahead of the scramjet engine being started.
    Hypersonic disappointment

    When the rocket unit detached 15 seconds later the X-51A craft lost control and broke apart, falling into the Pacific Ocean north-west of Los Angeles.

    "It is unfortunate that a problem with this subsystem caused a termination before we could light the scramjet engine," Charlie Brink, of the Air Force Research Laboratory at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, said in a statement.

    "All our data showed we had created the right conditions for engine ignition and we were very hopeful to meet our test objectives."

    The previous test aircraft was also lost to the Pacific after it was unable to restart its engine.

    But the original test flight, in 2010, flew at five times the speed of sound for three minutes.

    The Pentagon - which helped fund the project - has been testing hypersonic technologies in an effort to develop faster missiles.

    It has also been suggested the research could eventually help build a commercial plane with the promise of London to New York trips taking as little as an hour, or Tokyo to Paris journeys slightly more than double that time.

    For now only one X-51A vehicle remains and the Air Force has not yet decided whether to organise a fourth test.
    To be Truly ignorant, Man requires an Education - Plato

  • #2
    Originally posted by JAD_333 View Post
    Is this thing ever going to work and is it worth the effort?

    BBC News - Hypersonic jet Waverider fails Mach 6 test
    Work, yes. Practical? Maybe.

    I think it's definitely worth the effort. The research budget is peanuts compared to the money we plowed into Solyndra or Fiskar.

    One more thing, can't blame this one on shoddy Chinese product.
    "Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.

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    • #3
      Originally posted by gunnut View Post
      Work, yes. Practical? Maybe.

      I think it's definitely worth the effort. The research budget is peanuts compared to the money we plowed into Solyndra or Fiskar.

      One more thing, can't blame this one on shoddy Chinese product.

      If it leads to one-hour flights from Washington to Paris, I can see the value in it, although I rather like the old way when it took 6 weeks to make the trip.:)
      To be Truly ignorant, Man requires an Education - Plato

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      • #4
        What bothers me is that with each successive test, the waverider's flight duration has become shorter and shorter.

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        • #5
          Given that it's has not completed a flight it has yet to reach the successive bit....

          I'm just imagining JAD sitting on a mach 6 platform carrying a bomb load to Paris and why he chose that location. What did the French ever do to you JAD?
          Ego Numquam

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          • #6
            Popularized garlic

            I think he meant civilian flights.
            No such thing as a good tax - Churchill

            To make mistakes is human. To blame someone else for your mistake, is strategic.

            Comment


            • #7
              The Concorde stretched 30 cm in supersonic flight.

              The SR-71 leaked live a sieve on the tarmac and tightened up in flight.

              I'm pretty interested to know how they plan on converting a platform made for military payload applications, to carrying plenty of bodies.

              If such materials exist... Because obviously they have a bit to learn on the tech just to keep the thing flying.
              Ego Numquam

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by JAD_333 View Post
                Is this thing ever going to work and is it worth the effort?
                Within the context of the test.

                Most definitiely, yes.

                "It is unfortunate that a problem with this subsystem caused a termination before we could light the scramjet engine," Charlie Brink, of the Air Force Research Laboratory at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, said in a statement.
                A booster rocket failed, and destroyed the aircraft ie a subsystem failed. Its surprising as i'd have thought rockets were mastered over sixty years ago. Seems like a basic error and its happened more than once.

                They did not even get to test the scramjet as they lost the aircraft.

                That's the important bit that remains to be tested.

                But the original test flight, in 2010, flew at five times the speed of sound for three minutes.
                It was proven once but they've been unable to duplicate it since.
                Last edited by Double Edge; 17 Aug 12,, 11:44.

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by Chunder View Post
                  Given that it's has not completed a flight it has yet to reach the successive bit....

                  I'm just imagining JAD sitting on a mach 6 platform carrying a bomb load to Paris and why he chose that location. What did the French ever do to you JAD?
                  Like Dok said, civilian flight. It's in the article. :)
                  To be Truly ignorant, Man requires an Education - Plato

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by JAD_333 View Post
                    Like Dok said, civilian flight. It's in the article. :)
                    Not to nitpick but
                    It has also been suggested the research could eventually help build a commercial plane with the promise of London to New York trips taking as little as an hour, or Tokyo to Paris journeys slightly more than double that time.
                    .

                    Given that military research often finds it's way into civilian applications..... It's the whole life support thing....
                    Ego Numquam

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Can't see any significant civilian payoff for decades yet if you only think along the lines of large scale commercial transport. A "super" Concorde would require a fully developed understanding of the technology/engineering problems involved which we don't have yet. Then you need to upscale the engines to a size that would propel commercial payloads/passengers. Hypersonic "cruise" missiles and LEO satellite launching systems are another thing though. They could be up and running in the short term and would then give you the base line for larger/upscaled commercial engines later on.
                      If you are emotionally invested in 'believing' something is true you have lost the ability to tell if it is true.

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                      • #12
                        Speaking of commercial flights...

                        What happened with those fancy shmancy suborbital flights, that would take 4 hours from London to Sydney?
                        No such thing as a good tax - Churchill

                        To make mistakes is human. To blame someone else for your mistake, is strategic.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Originally posted by Doktor View Post
                          What happened with those fancy shmancy suborbital flights, that would take 4 hours from London to Sydney?
                          We didn't want to make it that easy for the poms to get here.
                          Ego Numquam

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Looks like they finally got it to work.

                            X-51A Waverider Achieves Goal On Final Flight
                            The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory’s (AFRL) Boeing X-51A Waverider demonstrator successfully achieved sustained, scramjet-powered, air-breathing hypersonic flight above Mach 5 in its final test flight on May 1.

                            Although the Air Force is not yet commenting on details of the flight, the X-51A is thought to have experienced positive acceleration to speeds in excess of Mach 5 and run for the full duration of the planned powered phase of the test. Based on targets established for the previous test attempt, this could have been as long as 300 sec., followed by an unpowered gliding descent of around 500 sec. prior to impacting the sea in the Pacific Test range west of California. If these times and speeds are confirmed, they will represent new records for sustained, air-breathing hypersonic flight.

                            The X-51A is intended to prove the viability of a free-flying, scramjet-powered vehicle and is considered an essential building block toward the long-anticipated development of hypersonic weapons and other high-speed platforms. However, despite the partial success of the first flight, which reached Mach 4.88 under scramjet power in May 2010, that mission ended prematurely after a malfunction, as did the second flight in March 2011 and third in August 2012.

                            Coming in the wake of these disappointing prior tests, the success of the May 1 flight could therefore be pivotal in helping drive further research and development to meet the Air Force’s long-term goal of hypersonic capability. The test involved the last of the four vehicles to be built by Boeing and configured with a Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne SJX61 dual-mode ramjet/scramjet engine, and incorporated improvements and lessons learned from the three former flights.

                            These included better sealing between interfaces in the engine flow-path that are thought to have suffered “burn-through” on the first flight, allowing hot gases to penetrate the vehicle’s interior and prematurely ending the flight. Additionally, it incorporated hardware and software changes to counter issues that brought the second flight to a premature end after only 9.5 sec. of powered flight at around Mach 5. On this flight, the vehicle experienced an inlet un-start during the switch to hydrocarbon fuel, effectively blocking flow through the engine and shutting it down. Finally, the mission also included changes to the hypersonic cruiser’s control fins, one of which failed on the third mission, causing it to go out of control only 16 sec. into the test while still under boost.

                            For the final test, as with previous missions, the X-51A, attached to a modified Atacms missile booster, was launched from a B-52H mother ship over the Pacific. The stack separated from the B-52 and the booster fired as planned before the Atacms burned out and detached, and the scramjet ignited.

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