Mach6 world record

[legalskier]

The X-51A Waverider was released from a B-52 Stratofortress off the southern California coast and its scramjet engine accelerated the aircraft to Mach 6, and it flew autonomously for 200 seconds before losing acceleration...."We equate this leap in engine technology as equivalent to the post-World War II jump from propeller-driven aircraft to jet engines," he said.....Joe Vogel, Boeing's director of hypersonics, said, "This is a new world record and sets the foundation for several hypersonic applications, including access to space, reconnaissance, strike, global reach and commercial transportation."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/...c-record-at-six-times-the-speed-of-sound.html

How cool is this?

 

[powpig2002]

i can do that on my bike-going uphill-with a flat-into a head wind-with no hands-i can - honest

 

[marcski]

i can do that on my bike-going uphill-with a flat-into a head wind-with no hands-i can - honest

I can do that with my skis on.

 

[ctenidae]

I can do that with my skis on.

Backwards

 

[powpig2002]

yea well, well on skis, backwards and...and ... uphill, yea uphill !!!

 

[marcski]

yea well, well on skis, backwards and...and ... uphill, yea uphill !!!

We were already heading uphill, you had us going uphill in your first post, you nitwit!

:-D:-D:-D

 

[bigbog]

200 seconds without a bump is pretty good. Ramjet/Scramjet tech can be useful and maintenance-cheap...compared to NASA's Shuttle program I think....fwiw..?

 

[powpig2002]

We were already heading uphill, you had us going uphill in your first post, you nitwit!

:-D:-D:-D

i know you are but what....ah fark it.

 

[mondeo]

200 seconds without a bump is pretty good. Ramjet/Scramjet tech can be useful and maintenance-cheap...compared to NASA's Shuttle program I think....fwiw..?

Problem is, you still pretty much need a rocket to get into space. Where scramjets are going to be big in the near term is long range, extremely high speed missiles. Think of what you could do with being able to hit a target in 3 minutes from a base/aircraft 300 miles away. Long term they may be able either combine it with other forms of propulsion (similar to the SR-71 turbojet/ramjet combo, but throuw in a rocket) and get them to accelerate to orbital speeds while still in the atmosphere, but that's a ways off.

The real breakthrough here is the cooling that goes on. Total temperature at Mach 6, 60,000 ft (not including impacts of dissociation,) is 2700°F. That's before fuel is ignited, just from the speed of the airplane. Regular jet fuel (JP7) is run though the engine inlet and exhaust surfaces before entering the combustion chamber. That's pretty impressive stuff, considering you can only really heat jet fuel to around 400°F before it starts degrading and leaving coke deposits, though with such short a test that may not have been a major concern. Also, they cracked the fuel midstream, turning it into a gaseous mixture before it entered the combustion chamber, probably helping with the coking issue and eliminating the need for vaporization apparatus.

 

[o3jeff]

Problem is, you still pretty much need a rocket to get into space. Where scramjets are going to be big in the near term is long range, extremely high speed missiles. Think of what you could do with being able to hit a target in 3 minutes from a base/aircraft 300 miles away. Long term they may be able either combine it with other forms of propulsion (similar to the SR-71 turbojet/ramjet combo, but throuw in a rocket) and get them to accelerate to orbital speeds while still in the atmosphere, but that's a ways off.

The real breakthrough here is the cooling that goes on. Total temperature at Mach 6, 60,000 ft (not including impacts of dissociation,) is 2700°F. That's before fuel is ignited, just from the speed of the airplane. Regular jet fuel (JP7) is run though the engine inlet and exhaust surfaces before entering the combustion chamber. That's pretty impressive stuff, considering you can only really heat jet fuel to around 400°F before it starts degrading and leaving coke deposits, though with such short a test that may not have been a major concern. Also, they cracked the fuel midstream, turning it into a gaseous mixture before it entered the combustion chamber, probably helping with the coking issue and eliminating the need for vaporization apparatus.

I didn't realize that much stuff went on in making coke.

 

[marcski]

Problem is, you still pretty much need a rocket to get into space. Where scramjets are going to be big in the near term is long range, extremely high speed missiles. Think of what you could do with being able to hit a target in 3 minutes from a base/aircraft 300 miles away. Long term they may be able either combine it with other forms of propulsion (similar to the SR-71 turbojet/ramjet combo, but throuw in a rocket) and get them to accelerate to orbital speeds while still in the atmosphere, but that's a ways off.

The real breakthrough here is the cooling that goes on. Total temperature at Mach 6, 60,000 ft (not including impacts of dissociation,) is 2700°F. That's before fuel is ignited, just from the speed of the airplane. Regular jet fuel (JP7) is run though the engine inlet and exhaust surfaces before entering the combustion chamber. That's pretty impressive stuff, considering you can only really heat jet fuel to around 400°F before it starts degrading and leaving coke deposits, though with such short a test that may not have been a major concern. Also, they cracked the fuel midstream, turning it into a gaseous mixture before it entered the combustion chamber, probably helping with the coking issue and eliminating the need for vaporization apparatus.

The SR-71 was a remarkable aircraft. Just think that it's built on 1960's technology...and was, if I'm not mistaken, still the fastest plane when it was retired not too many years ago.

 

[ctenidae]

I didn't realize that much stuff went on in making coke.

That's nothing compared to diet cherry coke.

 

[mondeo]

The SR-71 was a remarkable aircraft. Just think that it's built on 1960's technology...and was, if I'm not mistaken, still the fastest plane when it was retired not too many years ago.

And no one was allowed to leave the cafeteria in the building the engine was being designed in until they got Secret clearance, and you had to have Top Secret to work on it. Or so I've heard.

 

[SkiDork]

IIRC it used to leak fuel until it got up to speed, something to do with expansion of the seals during high speed...

 

[marcski]

IIRC it used to leak fuel until it got up to speed, something to do with expansion of the seals during high speed...

Yes, I remember that as well.