THIRD X-43 TEST HYPERSONIC RESEARCH CRAFT SET TO FLY MONDAY.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 NASA: see National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA in full National Aeronautics and Space Administration Independent U.S. engineers and researchers are gearing up to end a hypersonic hy·per·son·ic adj. Of, relating to, or capable of speed equal to or exceeding five times the speed of sound. hy research program with a world-record flight approaching 7,000 mph over the Pacific Ocean. If the weather permits, on Monday a wedge-shape X-43 unmanned research craft will make the final of three scramjet scramjet: see jet propulsion. test flights that National Aeronautics and Space Administration National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), civilian agency of the U.S. federal government with the mission of conducting research and developing operational programs in the areas of space exploration, artificial satellites (see satellite, artificial), officials expect to provide a wealth of information for designers of future aircraft, space launchers and spacecraft. The $230 million program's goal is to advance technologies for a scramjet engine drawing oxygen for combustion from the atmosphere, rather than carrying it as a rocket ship rocket ship n. A spacecraft powered and propelled by rockets. does. By not having to carry oxygen, a craft could save fuel weight and carry more payload (1) Refers to the "actual data" in a packet or file minus all headers attached for transport and minus all descriptive meta-data. In a network packet, headers are appended to the payload for transport and then discarded at their destination. . The scramjet engine has been the subject of analysis and ground tests for years, but ground tests can only simulate the high speeds exceeding Mach 6 for a matter of a few milliseconds. The X-43's scramjet engine will fire for about 10 seconds. ``One of the objectives is to validate the ground test data and the tools we have to design a vehicle,'' said Laurie Marshall, NASA Dryden Flight Research Center's chief engineer for the program. ``The data we're out there to get, at this time, can't be obtained any other way but through flight.'' The first X-43 aircraft had to be blown up in June 2001 over the Pacific Ocean via a self-destruction mechanism when the Pegasus booster rocket carrying it went out of control after its fins came off. On March 27, the second X-43 set a world speed record when it flew at speeds of about 5,000 mph, the fastest ever for a nonrocket air-``breathing'' engine. As expected in the upcoming flight, the X-43's engine burned only for a few seconds March 27, but NASA officials said it provided massive amounts of high-quality data that will take researchers months to analyze. ``We have already opened the door,'' said Joel Sitz, NASA Dryden's X-43 program manager. ``We can give industry and other government agencies the confidence to carry on.'' One challenge facing the upcoming flight is that the heat on the X-43 will be much greater than on the previous flight. Hot spots hot spots acute moist dermatitis. on the previous X-43 flight reached 2,600 degrees. Temperatures are expected to reach as high as 3,600 degrees during this flight. Additional thermal protection is being put on the vertical tail and on the leading edges of the aircraft. The thermal protection is a coating similar to what is used on the space shuttles The term Space Shuttles refers to partly or fully reusable launch vehicles for regularly placing payloads into low earth orbit. See:
The X-43, attached to a Pegasus space booster rocket, will be carried aloft by a modified NASA B-52. The B-52 will fly from NASA Dryden to a range over the Pacific Ocean, where it will release the X-43/Pegasus booster stack at an altitude of about 40,000 feet. The Pegasus booster will carry the X-43 to an altitude of about 110,000 feet, where the X-43 will separate from the Pegasus and fire its scramjet engine. After the engine burn, the X-43 will fly a preprogrammed set of maneuvers all the way down to a crash in the ocean. The maneuvers will provide data for future aircraft designs. The future of hypersonic research by NASA is being examined. One possibility is to research what is needed to use the technology for the first stage of a two-stage space launch system, said Vincent Rausch, manager of the Hyper-X program. Rausch said that idea is ``in the selling mode.'' While NASA considers its course in hypersonic research, the Air Force is pressing ahead with efforts to develop such technologies for use in future aircraft that could reach any spot in the world within a couple of hours. The Air Force's ultimate goal is to develop a plane capable of flying at least 3,500 mph and carrying 12,000 pounds of cruise missiles cruise missile, low-flying, continuously powered offensive missile designed to evade defense systems. Although the German V-1 (1944) was a simple cruise missile, the cruise missile did not realize its potential until the 1970s, when the United States sought to or small-diameter bombs. Jim Skeen, (661) 267-5743 james.skeen(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): photo Photo: (color) The little X-43 hypersonic research craft is attached on top of 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). to be carried by a B-52 for a test launch Monday. Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News |
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