NASA SCRAMJET FLIES ON TO NOVEMBER TARGET.

Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE - With no showstopping problems from a ``dress rehearsal'' flight, NASA announced Wednesday that it plans to fly its final X-43A hypersonic aircraft in early or mid-November in what is expected to be a record-setting flight.

After sending another X-43 to about 5,000 mph in March, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is preparing the third and final flight in a $230 million program researching an experimental type of jet engine that could power future space vehicles and military aircraft.

During the November flight, the X-43A is expected to hit a top speed of Mach 10, about 7,000 mph, which would be a speed record for an aircraft powered by an air-breathing - non-rocket - engine. The aircraft's engine will fire only for a few seconds, but it is expected to be enough to provide NASA with information on the engine, called a scramjet.

After engine shut down, the X-43A will fly a set of maneuvers all the way to its splashdown onto the Pacific Ocean. The aircraft will not be recovered.

The program's goal is to advance technologies for a scramjet engine: an ultra-high-speed engine drawing oxygen for combustion from the atmosphere rather than carrying it as a rocket ship does. By not having to carry oxygen, a spacecraft could save fuel weight and carry more equipment.

NASA is looking at possible flight dates between Nov. 8 through Nov. 15, with the most likely flight date on Tuesday, Nov. 9.

A B-52 mothership will carry the X-43A from NASA Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base to the U.S. Navy test range off the Southern California coast. A Pegasus space booster slung beneath the B-52 will then rocket the X-43A to its test altitude of about 110,000 feet before the experimental aircraft makes its brief flight.

On Sept. 27, NASA conducted a ``captive carry'' flight, a sort of dress rehearsal in which the entire mission was conducted with the exception of actually releasing the X-43A from its B-52 mothership.

The scramjet concept has been the subject of analysis and ground tests for years. The data from the upcoming flight and the March mission will help NASA researchers validate wind-tunnel tests and other analyses on hypersonic flight.

The first X-43 aircraft had to be blown up in June 2001 over the Pacific Ocean by a self-destruction mechanism when the Pegasus booster rocket carrying it went out of control after its fins came off.

Jim Skeen, [phone]

james.skeen(at)dailynews.com