Hypersonic vehicle achieves aviation history
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The X-51A WaveRider hypersonic vehicle, powered by Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne’s scramjet engine, achieved aviation history this week by making the longest-ever supersonic combustion ramjet-powered flight.
’This first test flight brings aviation closer than ever to the reality of regular, sustained hypersonic flight,’ said Curtis Berger, director of Hypersonic Programs, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne.
The X-51A programme is a collaborative effort between the US Air Force Research Laboratory, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Boeing and Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne.
Charlie Brink, X-51A programme manager with the US Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, said: ’We equate this leap in engine technology as equivalent to the post-Second World War jump from propellers to jet engines.’
During its first flight, the unmanned WaveRider vehicle was carried beneath a US Air Force B-52 and dropped from an altitude of about 50,000ft over the Pacific Ocean, off southern California.
First flight of the X-51A
A solid rocket booster fired and propelled the cruiser to greater than Mach 4.5, creating the supersonic environment necessary to operate the engine.
The booster was then jettisoned and the Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne SJY61 scramjet engine ignited, initially on gaseous ethylene fuel. Next, the engine transitioned to JP-7 jet fuel, the same fuel once carried by the SR-71 Blackbird.
Readers' comments (4)
Stephen Mosley | 2 Jun 2010 3:22 pm
Exciting stuff but I have to say that I'm intrigued about how they are protecting the airframe against heat build up. They nearly burned the lower fin off the magnificent X-15 when they took that up to Mach 6.
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Anonymous | 2 Jun 2010 4:19 pm
The waverider concept is a bit different from normal aircraft. It was invented by Prof Nonweiler at Belfast's Queens Uni in the early 1950s. But didn't really become a pratical proposition until the advent of CVD relatively recently. One of the features is that the body contour is matched to the supersonic shock wave - and this protects the hardware from the effects of kinetic heating - it also means that it can only operate within a narrow mach number range.
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edneale | 2 Jun 2010 5:01 pm
Very exciting. Just one question though - where did it end up? Some old lady somewhere probably now has a multi-million dollar rocket laying on her roof like a spent firework after bonfire night....
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Anonymous | 2 Jun 2010 5:32 pm
Did they recover the booster and UAV or did both end up at the bottom of the Pacific?
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Editor's comments | 2 Jun 2010 5:32 pm
PWR inform us that it was destroyed following telemetry loss. The USAF is now reviewing telemetry data.