 |
U.S., NASA Futuristic Plane to Make Maiden Flight
NASA's first unpiloted X-43A, which is designed to travel through the atmosphere at 11,000 kmph, will make its maiden flight in mid-May.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration said the futurist plane is designed to fly seven to 10 times as fast as the speed of sound. Mach 1 is the speed of sound, which varies by altitude and is 1,224 kmph at sea level.
X-43A is a four-meter-long, surfboard-shaped plane, and NASA will test two more such planes. If successful, the planes will break the speed record of Mach 6.7, set by an X-15 in October 1967.
Unlike the rocket-powered X-15, the X-43A has an air-breathing engine. It carries hydrogen for fuel, but must use oxygen in the atmosphere for combustion. Conventional rockets carry both fuel
and an oxidant.
Currently, the fastest air-breathing aircraft is the SR-71 " Blackbird," which cruises slightly faster than Mach 3. The X-43A should become the first air-breathing plane to go hypersonic, or faster than Mach 5.
The 185-million-dollar X-43A project is experimental. The plane will probably never carry commercial passengers because of the high acceleration, heat generated by friction with the atmosphere, and the difficulty of turning a plane at such high speeds. However, engineers will collect flight data needed to build future planes perhaps 67 meter in length. The first piloted prototypes may fly by 2025.
In This Section
|