X-51 WaveRider Hypersonic Jet

[JAYRAM]

USAF's hypersonic plane fails in second test flight

The X-51 WaveRider. A Boeing Photo

Posted On: Jun 17, 2011

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, CALIFORNIA (BNS): The second test flight of US Air Force's experimental hypersonic aircraft, X-51 WaveRider, has ended in failure, the US media reported Friday.

The mission involved a B-52 bomber which was to release the aircraft at an altitude of 50,000 feet off the Pacific coast.

The B-52 bomber carrying the WaveRider took off from the Edwards Air Force Base in California on June 13 Monday.

Once the bomber reached the height of 50,000 feet near Point Mugu, it released the hypersonic plane "and it fell like a bomb for about four seconds before its booster rocket engine ignited and propelled the aircraft," the Los Angeles Times reported.

The aircraft was supposed to get separated from the bomber and speed across the sky, powered by an air-breathing combustion engine, but that didn't happen.

"A momentary lapse in airflow to the engine caused a shutdown and the X-51 plunged into the ocean within the test range," the news report said.

Engineers are evaluating the data collected during the test flight to identify the cause of the problem, it said quoting the Air Force.

"Obviously we're disappointed and expected better results," Charlie Brink, the Air Force X-51 programme manager, said in a statement. "But we are very pleased with the data collected on this flight."

The USAF had conducted the first test flight of the X-51 WaveRider on May 26, 2010. The maiden flight had lasted for over 200 seconds, the longest ever hypersonic flight powered by scramjet propulsion.

The WaveRider, built by Boeing and Pratt and Whitney Rocketdyne, reached an altitude of 70,000 feet and a top speed of Mach 6. However, a vehicle anomaly led to the termination of the flight after 200 seconds.

The hypersonic plane is being designed to hit distant targets anywhere in the world within few minutes. It could also substitute for a ballistic missile armed with conventional warhead.

USAF's hypersonic plane fails in second test flight - Brahmand.com

 

[Singh]

US to test third X-51 hypersonic cruise missile

==


A third Boeing X-51 hypersonic test vehicle will fly shortly, a senior company official says.

"We're planning to fly another vehicle shortly," says Joe Vogel, Boeing's hypersonics director. The test vehicle will fly as soon as the government gives its assent. "It'll be this year."

That would be the missile-like test vehicle's third flight. Two earlier tests successfully demonstrated hypersonic flight, but the air vehicles did not fly for as long a duration as was expected.

"I consider it successful," Vogel says of the truncated previous flights.

Vogel notes that the first flight set a world record for duration at hypersonic speed while the second flight ended with a controlled landing into the ocean.

There is also a fourth test vehicle available to the programme. If the third flight proves to be completely successful, that remaining test article could be used for materials testing or testing different flight profiles, Vogel says.

Boeing is working on the supersonic combustion ram jet, or scramjet, with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), US Air Force Research Laboratory and Pratt and Whitney Rocketdyne.

If successful, the endeavor could yield new missiles, aircraft and space-launch vehicles, Vogel says. A flight from New York to Los Angeles could take less 39 minutes at Mach 5, he adds.

Third X-51 hypersonic test vehicle to fly soon — www.flightglobal.com — Readability

 

[fzaq]

Re: US to test third X-51 hypersonic cruise missile

is there any actual picture of that thing?

 

[W.G.Ewald]

Re: US to test third X-51 hypersonic cruise missile

is there any actual picture of that thing?

 

[trackwhack]

Re: US to test third X-51 hypersonic cruise missile

The US has been struggling with the X51 for some time now, but Bramhos corp is confident of inducting the missile by 2015/16. And we have not even started testing yet. Quite strange. DRDO must have learnt a thing or two with the Shaurya.

fzaq, here is a video.

 

[Sridhar]

Re: US to test third X-51 hypersonic cruise missile

File:X-51A Waverider on B-52 2009.jpg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[indian_sukhoi]

Re: US to test third X-51 hypersonic cruise missile

X-51 is not a cruise missile but a test vehicle, More like a test bed for upcoming missiles or vehicles.


A lot of things are not unvield about X-51 like its max range and duration time.

 

[Shaitan]

Re: US to test third X-51 hypersonic cruise missile

India's hypersonic vehicle (HSTDV) looks similar to it.

 

[john70]

US military is ready to test a radical new hypersonic aircraft that can reach a speed of 4,500 mph within seconds.

US military to test new hypersonic aircraft X-51A 'WaveRider' - Brahmand.com

The aircraft, called the X-51A 'WaveRider', is currently being prepared at Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert.

It uses a revolutionary 'scramjet' engine that allows it to travel at hypersonic speeds and it will be dropped from a B-52 bomber in its latest test on Tuesday, the 'Daily Mail' reported.

Attached to a B-52 bomber's wing, it will be taken from Edwards to about 50,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean near Point Mugu. Hypersonic flight is seen as the next step for aircraft. The WaveRider programme is estimated to cost $140 million, according to Globalsecurity.org, a website for military policy research.

Then the cruiser's scramjet engine, notable because it has virtually no moving parts, ignites.

The WaveRider is expected to accelerate to about Mach 6 as it climbs to nearly 70,000 feet, the Los Angeles Times reported. After 300 seconds of flight, the WaveRider is set to break up after splashing into the Pacific, as planned.

 

[pmaitra]

WaveRider hypersonic jet targets Mach 6

WaveRider hypersonic jet targets Mach 6

The aircraft will break into pieces at the end of its flight

Hypersonic jet WaveRider is to undergo another test flight above the Pacific Ocean aiming to reach Mach 6.

At this speed - more than 4,300mph (6,900km/h) - it could travel from London to New York in about an hour.

A B-52 bomber will lift the wingless unmanned jet from US Edwards Air Force Base in California to 50,000 feet (15,250m).

The craft will then be dropped, and after a free fall of about four seconds, its engine is supposed to ignite.

X-51A WaveRider should then climb to 70,000ft (21,300m) and eventually reach Mach 6.

Source: BBC News - WaveRider hypersonic jet targets Mach 6

 

[pmaitra]

Re: WaveRider hypersonic jet targets Mach 6

 

[Razor]

Hypersonic jet X-51A Waverider fails Mach 6 test

Hypersonic jet Waverider fails Mach 6 test

Image Source: Getty Images

The unmanned aircraft had been designed to fly at six times the speed of sound after being dropped from a B-52 bomber.

But officials said that a faulty control fin prevented it from starting its supersonic-combustion ramjet engine, and the craft was lost.

It marks the second time in a row that the Air Force has been unable to test the technology as planned.

The latest attempt had sought to fly at its maximum speed for five minutes.

But a spokesman said that a problem was recognised 16 seconds after a rocket booster was triggered to increase its velocity, ahead of the scramjet engine being started.

When the rocket unit detached 15 seconds later the X-51A craft lost control and broke apart, falling into the Pacific Ocean north-west of Los Angeles.

"It is unfortunate that a problem with this subsystem caused a termination before we could light the scramjet engine," Charlie Brink, of the Air Force Research Laboratory at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, said in a statement.

"All our data showed we had created the right conditions for engine ignition and we were very hopeful to meet our test objectives."

The previous test aircraft was also lost to the Pacific after it was unable to restart its engine.

But the original test flight, in 2010, flew at five times the speed of sound for three minutes.

Source: BBC

 

[Razor]

Military's Mach 5 Missile Fails, Again

A crucial test for the Air Force's experimental Mach 5 missile has ended in failure, according to the Air Force. Tuesday's test is also the third time the hypersonic X-51A Waverider cruise missile has fallen short. But this time could be the last.

As first reported by Danger Room, the Waverider's control fin failed, preventing the missile's scramjet engine from starting. The Air Force later confirmed the result in a statement

The Air Force launched the missile over the Pacific sometime between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. Tuesday from a B-52 Stratofortress based at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Traveling at 50,000 feet, the B-52 was to launch the missile, which would then scream across the Pacific at hypersonic speeds. The missile got away from the B-52, but then flopped uncontrollably into the ocean.

The stakes were high. So far the tests have cost the Pentagon some $300 million. True, the millions in research and testing have helped advance the field of hypersonics, but the shortage of tangible results have also helped spoil the confidence the Air Force once had in producing a working weapon. The failure also has serious implications for the military's "prompt global strike" mission, which aims to use missiles with engines capable of hypersonic flight to wallop targets hundreds — even thousands — of miles away and do so within minutes.

The 26-foot-long X-51A was supposed to be a working candidate for prompt global strike, and a safer alternative to the Air Force's former plan to stick conventional warheads onto intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs. Problem with using ICBMs, however, is that they look like nuclear missiles when launched, potentially provoking a devastating war. The X-51A is just a cruise missile — albeit one with an experimental scramjet engine.

More @ Source: Danger Room (Wired)

 

[bhramos]

 

[W.G.Ewald]

UPDATE 2-US hypersonic aircraft crashes seconds into military test flight | Reuters

An unmanned experimental aircraft designed to fly six times the speed of sound broke apart over the Pacific Ocean seconds into a military test flight due to a faulty control fin, the U.S. Air Force said on Wednesday.

The problem with the fin on the craft known as the Waverider or X-51A was identified in a test flight on Tuesday, 16 seconds after a rocket booster on the remotely monitored craft was ignited to propel it forward, the Air Force said in a statement.

Fifteen seconds later, when the X-51A separated from the rocket booster, it lost control due to a "faulty control fin," the statement said. The 31 seconds of flight fell far short of the military's goal for the X-51A to fly for five minutes.

The aircraft broke apart immediately and fell into the Pacific Ocean near Point Mugu northwest of Los Angeles, said Daryl Mayer, a spokesman for the 88th Air Base Wing at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio.

 

[Drsomnath999]

big dissapointment for USA ,well hypersonic missile is difficult to technolgy to master .
Well need to be seen can india & russia build brahmos 2 succesfully ??

 

[sayareakd]

US hypersonic aircraft crashes seconds into military test flight

LOS ANGELES: An unmanned experimental aircraft designed to fly six times the speed of sound broke apart over the Pacific Ocean seconds into a military test flight due to a faulty control fin, the US air force said on Wednesday.

The problem with the fin on the craft known as the Waverider or X-51A was identified in a test flight on Tuesday, 16 seconds after a rocket booster on the remotely monitored craft was ignited to propel it forward, the air force said in a statement.

Fifteen seconds later, when the X-51A separated from the rocket booster, it lost control due to a "faulty control fin," the statement said. The 31 seconds of flight fell far short of the military's goal for the X-51A to fly for five minutes.

The aircraft broke apart immediately and fell into the Pacific Ocean near Point Mugu northwest of Los Angeles, said Daryl Mayer, a spokesman for the 88th Air Base Wing at Wright-Patterson air force Base in Ohio.

Even if the test had been a success, the aircraft would have crashed at the end of the flight in any case and was not considered retrievable.

The Waverider was designed to reach speeds of Mach 6 or above, six times the speed of sound and fast enough to zoom from New York to London in less than an hour. The military has its eye on using the Waverider program to develop missiles with non-nuclear explosives that could strike anywhere in the world within an hour, analysts said.

The cost of the experimental aircraft, which military officials said was dropped from a B-52 bomber before its rocket booster was ignited, has not been disclosed because many details of the program are classified.

The aircraft is known as the Waverider because it stays airborne, in part, with lift generated by the shock waves of its own flight. The Boeing Co's Phantom Works division performed design and assembly on the craft, the military said.

The fins on the rocket booster kept the aircraft on-course during the initial phase of the flight, despite the problem with the control fin on the X-51A itself, Mayer said.

A Boeing spokeswoman declined to comment on the test flight, citing an air force request to have all public communication come from the military.

Future X-51A flight

This was the third of four X-51A aircraft built for the military, one of which flew for over three minutes at nearly five times the speed of sound during a 2010 test flight, the air force said in a statement.

The air force, which is analyzing data from Tuesday's test flight, said one X-51A aircraft remains and that a decision has not been made "when or if that vehicle will fly at this time."

The Waverider is part of efforts by the US military to develop a prompt global strike capability to hit targets anywhere in the world within an hour, said Guy Ben-Ari, senior fellow with the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Over the years, the global strike program will likely eat up billions of dollars in development costs, Ben-Ari said. If the program becomes operational, targets could include conventional military sites or militants, he added.

A missile would likely not be fired from a vehicle like the X-51A, but the craft itself would be the missile, he said.

"The differences between what's an aircraft and what's a missile and what you would call a drone or a remotely piloted vehicle are becoming very fuzzy," Ben-Ari said.

That the test flight crashed early due to a problem with a fin would likely be frustrating for the military because that part was relatively easy to build, unlike the largely untested Scramjet engine, said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a website for military policy research.

"The only way that you can develop this stuff is to actually take it out and fire it, and so the problem is they've got computer models but not much data," Pike said.

Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne designed the X-51A's "Scramjet" engine, which uses the forward motion of the craft to compress air for fuel combustion, according to a description of the project from the military.

"It is unfortunate that a problem with this subsystem caused a termination before we could light the Scramjet engine," Charlie Brink, X-51A program manager for the air force research laboratory, said in a statement.

"All our data showed we had created the right conditions for engine ignition and we were very hopeful to meet our test objectives," Brink said.

US hypersonic aircraft crashes seconds into military test flight - The Times of India

 

[sayareakd]

Re: US hypersonic aircraft crashes seconds into military test flight