26/05/2010 - Состоялись первые испытания X-51A Waverider

пролетел 200 сек вместо планировавшихся 300 на скрамджетной тяге
оставшегося финансирования пока хватит только на еще один полет

X-51 Waverider makes historic hypersonic flight

5/26/2010 - EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif (AFNS) — An X-51A Waverider flight-test vehicle successfully made the longest supersonic combustion ramjet-powered hypersonic flight May 26 off the southern California Pacific coast.

The more than 200 second burn by the X-51's Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne-built air breathing scramjet engine accelerated the vehicle to Mach 6. The previous longest scramjet burn in a flight test was 12 seconds in a NASA X-43.

Air Force officials called the test, the first of four planned, an unqualified success. The flight is considered the first use of a practical hydrocarbon fueled scramjet in flight.

"We are ecstatic to have accomplished most of our test points on the X-51A's very first hypersonic mission," said Charlie Brink, a X-51A program manager with the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. "We equate this leap in engine technology as equivalent to the post-World War II jump from propeller-driven aircraft to jet engines."

The X-51 launched at about 10 a.m. from here, carried under the left wing of an Air Force Flight Test Center B-52 Stratofortress. Then, flying at 50,000 feet over the Point Mugu Naval Air Warfare Center Sea Range, it was released. Four seconds later an Army Tactical Missile solid rocket booster accelerated the X-51 to about Mach 4.8 mach before it and a connecting interstage were jettisoned.
The launch and separation were normal, Mr. Brink said.

Four X-51A cruisers have been built for the Air Force and the (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) by industry partners Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne and Boeing.
Air Force officials intend to fly the three remaining X-51A flight test vehicles this fall, Mr. Brink said.
Air Force officials currently plan to fly each on virtually identical flight profiles, building knowledge from each successive flight.

Hypersonic flight, normally defined as beginning at Mach 5, five times speed of sound, presents unique technical challenges with heat and pressure, which make conventional turbine engines impractical. Program officials said producing thrust with a scramjet has been compared to lighting a match in a hurricane and keeping it burning.

"This first flight was the culmination of a six-year effort by a small, but very talented AFRL, DARPA and industry development team," Mr. Brink said. "Now we will go back and really scrutinize our data. No test is perfect, and I'm sure we will find anomalies that we will need to address before the next flight. But anyone will tell you that we learn just as much, if not more, when we encounter a glitch."

Mr. Brink noted while development of the X-51A's engine and the test program are complex, controlling costs has been a key objective. The team has incorporated or adapted existing proven technologies and elected from the outset not to build recovery systems in the flight test vehicles, in an effort to control costs and focus funding on the vehicle's fuel-cooled scramjet engine.

Mr. Brink said he believes the X-51A program will provide knowledge required to develop the game changing technologies needed for future access to space and hypersonic weapon applications.

"The Air Force has successfully launched the X-51 WaveRider hypersonic missile, bringing the military one step closer to a Mach 6 cruise missile that’s 10 times faster than current models.

An observer tells Danger Room the test was “mostly successful,” with over 200 seconds of accelerating powered flight. “Clean separation, perfect engine start, acceleration under power,” our source says. “Some hitches at the end of flight, but overall it’s a magnificent first flight.”

The X-51 is part of an effort to develop a new class of cruise missile that can handle hypersonic flight. The WaveRider — built by Boeing Phantom Works and engine maker Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne — is built around a scramjet design, which employs a supersonic mix of air and jet fuel to reach extreme speeds.

This test was run from Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. As this embedded video shows, a B-52 had to carry the WaveRider 50,000 feet. After the bomber released the aircraft, an attached solid rocket booster was supposed to accelerate the WaveRider to about Mach 4.5. After the booster fell away, the scramjet was supposed to kick in, taking the aircraft up to Mach 6.

A first flight attempt was scrubbed yesterday, after a tanker ship sailed into the splash zone. We’re waiting for more details, but if all went to plan, this may be the longest-ever hypersonic flight powered by scramjet propulsion."