The Ministry of Defense official compares this technology, if realized, to the revolution that the aviation industry went through in the past from piston planes to jet planes
Update - the experiment failed. See news
X-51A WaveRider unmanned test aircraft funded by the US Department of Defense and NASA will undergo a test today over the Pacific Ocean. A remote team of pilots launched a plane with modern technology, moving at a speed of Mach 6 - that is, about 6,000 km/h for five whole minutes.
The Los Angeles Times reports that at such a speed it means doubling the record speed achieved so far for such a time in previous planes and if everything goes as planned the Pentagon will be able to move supplies from coast to coast in less than an hour.
The plane, a Waverider X-51A, will be launched into the air attached to the wing of a B-52 bomber, which will take it to the space above the Pacific Ocean and release it at a height of about 15 kilometers above the water.
"If the experiment is successful and the development of the plane continues, it is a revolution no less than the transition from piston planes to jet planes," says Robert Mercier, vice president of technology in the high-speed systems division at the US Air Force Laboratories in Ohio to the newspaper.
"Ever since the Wright brothers, we've been looking at how to build airplanes better. Hypersonic flight is one of the areas that has the potential to work at the forefront of aeronautical science. I believe we are at the threshold of this arena."
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To Alex:
If governments would invest in simple small inventions, humanity would be in a much better place.
There are many small inventors who do not get help promoting their inventions. And their inventions are no less important.
The clock, the light bulb, the radio, the car and other great inventions are not the result of military effort nor of government investment.
It seems to me that you are behind in the information, the experiment failed yesterday and the plane was fatally damaged in one of the wings.
A large part of the great inventions came as a result of military developments. They start in the army and then it goes to civilian use, for example Bluetooth and Gypias where do you think it started???
Every invention must be important.
The problem is in government policy.
Usually, the government directs a huge fortune to inventions which, in its opinion, will increase its power.
In my opinion :
There should be public criticism of the authorities regarding investments and technological developments.
Everyone knows that technology is moving forward, for better or for worse.
The inventions will benefit or destroy us in time, I don't know from the cases.
Mankind will invent more and more even as it degenerates into primitiveness.
All inventions are as important as this one.
From the shuttle to the spaceship..
According to my understanding, this is a jet engine, meaning a jet engine without moving parts, the jet engine is designed to replace jet engines in cruise missiles.
Long distance flight is never in an arc and not in a straight line due to the curvature of the ball. If they can make it financially viable, it's a great way to transport cargo that is not sensitive to high accelerations (or find a way to accelerate more slowly)
collect:
No one is fooling themselves that this is a commercial plane! This is a fighter plane!
Hosham, do you really think that the grandmother in the passage at 4 can stand 1G? Except that with this technology you can't accelerate slowly, you have to start really fast. So it is true that normal engines can also be connected in addition to supersonic ones, but the wings will not be suitable for "riding on sound waves" and for subsonic speed. So it is true that folding wings can be added, but there are still many problems and there is no chance that a commercial airplane will be created in the near future.
More and more it seems that the governments are investing huge capital in things that are very far from the public interest.
Technology was supposed to work for the benefit of humanity!
What happened to us?
what went wrong?
Asaf
It is probably not a matter of technology for aircraft in civil service but of military weapon technology.
According to what I understand, this is perhaps technology for a UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) that will be used as an attack aircraft for military targets.
Pressure suits are only needed when the plane accelerates at a rate higher than 1G.
If the flight is planned in a straight line, you can accelerate and decelerate at a smaller rate
Another publicist rant. The technology might be good for making fast rockets but there is no way, in the near future, to harness it for passenger flight. That is, there is if you want to put the passengers in pressure suits 🙂