Air Force Gears Up for Hypersonic Missile Test - The X51 WaveRider - COOL PHOTOS

Air Force Gears Up for Hypersonic Missile Test - The X51 WaveRider

The Air Force later this month is set to test what could be a ground-breaking flight of a hypersonic missile.
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The X-51 WaveRider took its maiden flight last year, demonstrating the longest-ever flight of a supersonic combustion ramjet engine, also known as a Scramjet. But the next test flight is expected to fly faster and farther: at speeds of up to Mach 6...

(Mach 6 = 4567mph or 7350kmph)

...and lasting four minutes.

(This is just over 300 miles in 4 minutes)

"Our next flight is scheduled for March 22"...
...The X-51 will be launched from a B-52 bomber flying over the Pacific Ocean Point Mugu Naval Air Warfare Center Sea Range, and then will be rocket-boosted to speeds up to several times the speed of sound before transitioning to Scramjet power.

Boeing Website: X-51 WaveRider

The X-51 program is a consortium between Boeing and Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne. The customers are the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), with support from NASA.
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Boeing X-51 PDF Data Sheet

Popular Mechanics - Hypersonic Cruise Missile: America's New Global Strike Weapon

The mission: Attack anywhere in the world in less than an hour. But is the Pentagon's bold program a critical new weapon for hitting elusive targets, or a good way to set off a nuclear war?

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Wiki: WaveRider
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A waverider is a hypersonic aircraft design that improves its supersonic lift-to-drag ratio by using the shock waves being generated by its own flight as a lifting surface.

Coooooooool Surf The ShockWave ! ! !

They've gone plaid! (Star for you if you get the reference!)

That's pretty cool. Scary, but cool. I'll bet you that somewhere in some bunker there's a jet fighter/bomber that uses the same technology.

reply to post by Frontkjemper


Was that above or below ridiculous speed? By the way, got any spare cans of fresh air around?

Gimme some PAW! OwOwOwOwOw!

The tests are being operated out of here:
Naval Air Station Point Mugu

Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron 112
Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron 113
Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron 116
Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron 117
Fleet Logistics Support Squadron 55
Fleet Logistics Support Squadron 30
Air Test and Evaluation Squadron 9
Air Test and Evaluation Squadron 30
146th Airlift Wing, California Air National Guard

reply to post by AllSeeingI


When WaveRiders get deployed, they will essentially obsolete those awesome B-2 attack missions:

Touchdown: B-2 stealth jets return after epic 11,500 mile journey to bomb Libyan aircraft shelters

Why wait 25 hours to strike? With WaveRiders, you can strike your enemy within the hour and retain same accuracy. Scary thought huh?