Mach 10, mach 10!!

[mike_c]

Just watched it live on NASA TV.

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html. No news service link yet.

The X-43A just made aeronautical history-- mach 10 on a jet engine!

[ewagner]

1. Scram jet flight?

Woooohhoooooooo!

[mike_c]

3. yep-- still flying at above mach 7 about a minute down range...

Stable flight.

[Liberal Veteran]

2. Will the pilot turn into salamander like on Voyager?

:)

[progressiveBadger]

4. Yes, but not this time

cuz it was remote controlled. At least, that's what I heard. They may have just told us that so that they can use the transforming properties of Mach 10 to form an army of Covenant warriors.
I gotta stop playing halo.

[rabid_nerd]

5. That was warp 10

Mach 10 is 10x the speed of sound.

[Liberal Veteran]

6. I know...but my theory is just as "sound" as the science on that episode.

So there!

:P

[DireStrike]

11. Lol I know... why would we evolve into lizards?

[daleo]

7. Bombers that can reach anywhere in the world in a few hours

Before anyone gets too excited, that is the main impetus for this research. Unless you like that sort of thing.

[steely]

8. and it burns up that oil stuff faster too

hurry hurry

[mr_hat]

10. Scram jets convert oxygen in the atmosphere >

as their fuel source.

[mike_c]

16. not exactly-- they still use a combustable fuel....

They just use a ram scoop to compress air for the O₂ source instead of a turbine.

[karlrschneider]

17. Allmost is...they scavenge what little Oxygen there is at high altitude

and use it as the oxidizer for the fuel that's onboard. This thing is pretty neat, but it's only about 10 feet long...MAYBE big enough to carry one person (but I sure as hell wouldn't ride in it, even though I fly planes for a living...) The technology isn't really new, ramjets were built 50 years ago (of course it's been refined a lot) but it's doubtful it can be used on large platforms. We shall see, I suppose.
:eyes:

[Atlant]

27. What's new is the "Supersonic Combustion" in the ramjet (SCramjet). (NT)

[haktar]

18. Not exactly correct

It only uses the forward speed to compress the air. It needs conventional jet fuel. The advantage is, it doesn't need any moving parts and the fuel effiency ist rather high.
The principle was already used here in Germany in WWII.
And BTW thrust is not everything, it will never be used for an commercial airliner, Remember the materials that had to be used to build a SR71 Blackbird ? The only goal is hypersonic weaponry, so i don't want to congratulate you on this one.

[mike_c]

9. it's still historic, but you're right...

...it's sad that the money for this kind of research-- which can yield space planes-- is largely because of prospective military applications, e.g. cruise missiles that strike targets at mach 10.

[high density]

12. BBC News Article:

Superfast Nasa jet pushes Mach 10
Nasa flew an unmanned experimental jet on Tuesday to a speed that was in excess of nine times the speed of sound - a world record.

The X-43A - a supersonic combustion ramjet (scramjet) - was released on its test run from beneath a bomber's wing.


More: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4018117.stm

[Dogmudgeon]

13. How do you do that?

The shaded block thing, that is?

--bkl

[high density]

14. here you go:

[div class="excerpt"]text in the shaded block goes
here[/div]

[Dogmudgeon]

20. There's only one possible response to that ...

Thanks!

--bkl

[Almost_there]

15. The theoretical application is actually amazing...

Aside from military uses, which are of course obvious, a stable scramjet could mean huge time and fuel savings for transcontinental, transatlantic and transpacific travel. New York to LA in what? An hour, including take off and landing time? NY to London in about that too, NY to Tokyo in about.. oh, 2 hours, including take off and landing. Of course, its theoretical for commercial flights, but, then again, so were high bypass jet engines, and those things get us across oceans every day.

NASA does do some decent work, they really do. And a scramjet is amazingly fuel efficient, considering that it takes a 747 about 50,000 gallons of fuel from NY to Tokyo, this thing is like the Prius of airplane travel!

~Almost

[Barrett808]

19. Mars rovers, Cassini...yes, I'd say NASA does do some decent work n/t

[mulethree]

22. still have to get it to mach5 before it works

They use a rocket in the tests. Other jets go - mach 3.5? (Blackbird)

They have an air-breathing rocket due next year.

http://www1.msfc.nasa.gov/NEWSROOM/astptechbriefs/air_breathing.pdf

[Atlant]

28. Flight time is one aspect, but...

> New York to LA in what? An hour, including take off and landing time?
> NY to London in about that too, NY to Tokyo in about.. oh, 2 hours,
> including take off and landing.

Yeah, but you have to add back in three hours having your shoes
inspected at the departing airport and two hours clearing Customs
and Immigration if you're a foreigner arriving in the United States.

Atlant

[muriel_volestrangler]

21. What's the minimum speed a scramjet can operate at?

It has to be supersonic, it seems (I can certainly believe the dynamics couldn't work at both subsonic and supersonic speeds), and the only figure I've seen on the web is Mach 5 - but that wasn't from an authoritative source.

Anyone know? If it's Mach 5, that's still above the speed any normal jet has reached - so you'd still need a rocket (ie having to carry its own oxidant) to get up to speed.

[mulethree]

23. air breathing rocket?

http://www1.msfc.nasa.gov/NEWSROOM/astptechbriefs/air_breathing.pdf

Theres also pulse detonation jets in the works that may hit Mach5, but seem much further away.

[muriel_volestrangler]

26. Thanks. That sounds like the ultimate goal

for which this is part of the research - the '3 stage' approach of conventional jet plane, rocket and scramjet wouldn't be a practical solution economically.

[Atlant]

29. Here's a page that infers RAMJET to Mach 2

Here's a page that infers that the operating range of ramjets and
scramjets overlaps:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/A593174

Other pages have claimed scramjets only work at >Mach 5, but even
that is still within the overlap range and I would suppose that
additional work (variable aspect inlets or some such) could
increase the "blending range" to the wide range reported by
Auntie Beeb.

Atlant

[DeaconBlues]

24. Yawn

Wake me up when this country has the capability to send manned missions to our own space station again without relying on the Russians. Space exploration has truly entered the dark ages.

[JohnOneillsMemory]

25. Mach 10 is the new speed for mass murder. Wow. Fuckers.....n/t