NASA successfully tests 5
Posted on: Sunday, 28 March 2004, 06:00 CST
NASA successfully tests 5,000-mph jet
Associated Press
Sunday, March 28, 2004
Los Angeles -- Three years after its first test flight ended in an explosion, NASA on Saturday successfully launched an experimental jet designed to reach speeds approaching 5,000 mph.
The unpiloted X-43A made a 10-second powered flight, then went through some twists and turns during a six-minute glide before plunging into the Pacific Ocean about 400 miles off the California coast.
"Everything worked according to plan. It's been wonderful," NASA spokeswoman Leslie Williams said. "I actually thought it was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. We've been waiting a few years."
It wasn't immediately clear what speed the jet achieved after it was boosted to about 3,500 mph by a rocket, Williams said.
The first X-43A flight ended in failure June 2, 2001, after the modified Pegasus rocket used to accelerate the plane veered off course and was detonated. An investigation board found that preflight analyses failed to predict how the rocket would perform, leaving its control system unable to maintain stable flight.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration built the X- 43A under a $250 million program to develop and test an exotic type of engine called a supersonic-combustion ramjet, or scramjet.
The 2,800-pound X-43A was mounted on a Pegasus rocket booster and carried to an altitude of 40,000 feet by a modified B-52 bomber, which took off from Edwards Air Force Base in the high desert.
A few seconds after the craft was dropped, the rocket flared, sending the jet skyward on a streak of flame and light. At about 100,000 feet, the rocket dropped away.
A third X-43A could fly as early as the fall.
On the Net: NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center: www.dfrc.nasa.gov
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