TEST FLIGHT OF X-43A MAKES GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS NEAR 7,000 MPH RUN NEW SPEED MARK FOR JET-POWERED CRAFT.Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE Edwards Air Force Base, U.S. military installation, 301,000 acres (121,805 hectares), S Calif., NE of Lancaster; est. 1933. It is one of the largest air force bases in the United States and has the world's longest runway. - NASA's unmanned X-43A aircraft will get a new listing in Guinness World Records for its test flight that hit nearly 7,000 mph, a world speed record for a jet-powered aircraft. The 2006 records book due out in September will recognize the 12- foot-long, computer-guided craft for the Nov. 16 flight in which it hit Mach 9.6 over the Pacific Ocean. Carried to 109,000 feet by a Pegasus rocket The Pegasus rocket is a winged space booster developed by Orbital Sciences Corporation (Orbital). Three main stages, filled with solid propellant, provide most thrust. The vehicle is launched from another aircraft at approximately 40,000 feet (12,000 m). launched from beneath a B-52 mother ship, the X-43A was powered by an experimental scramjet scramjet: see jet propulsion. engine, which draws oxygen for combustion from the atmosphere rather than carrying it like a rocket ship rocket ship n. A spacecraft powered and propelled by rockets. . ``These demonstrations proved the viability of scramjet engine technology in a 'real world' flight environment and were the result of over 40 years of high-speed propulsion research within NASA NASA: see National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA in full National Aeronautics and Space Administration Independent U.S. ,'' said Paul Reukaut, deputy project manager for X-43A flight research and testing. The flight was the culmination of a seven-year, approximately $230 million ground and flight test program aimed at exploring alternatives to rocket power for space access vehicles. The program was conducted by NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate with the NASA Langley Research Center Langley Research Center (LaRC) Oldest of NASA's field centers, LaRC is located in Hampton, Virginia and directly borders Poquoson, Virginia and Langley Air Force Base. LaRC focuses primarily on aeronautical research, though the Lunar Lander was flight-tested at this facility and a , Hampton, Va., with NASA Dryden Flight Research Center The Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC), located inside Edwards Air Force Base, is an aeronautical research center operated by NASA. On March 26, 1976 it was named in honor of the late Hugh L. handling the flight research and testing. The Nov. 16 flight was the last. Three X-43 craft were made, each intended to make a single flight that ended in the ocean. The first test ended prematurely after the Pegasus booster rocket went out of control. The second, in March 2004, reached close to 5,000 mph, earning Guinness World Records honors, which is now surpassed by the November flight. The fastest manned jet was the SR-71, which could top Mach 3.2, or about 2,200 mph. The highest speed attained by a rocket-powered plane, NASA's X-15, was Mach 6.7. Jim Skeen, (661) 267-5743 james.skeen(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): photo Photo: (color in AV edition only -- ran in AV and SAC editions only) An X-43 aircraft, attached to its winged Pegasus booster rocket, hangs under a B-52 bomber at Edwards before its Nov. 16, 2004, test flight that propelled it into the record books. NASA |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion