Zephyr Net

The fastest air breathing aircraft now!!



Read this! http://www.nasa.gov/missions/research/x43_suc.html

That is screaming

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"Great pilots are made not born... A man may possess good eyesight, sensitive hands, and perfect coordination, but the end product is only fashioned by steady coaching, much practice, and experience."
Air Vice-Marshall J.E. "Johnnie" Johnson, RAF

Yes this was the second flight attempt... the first attempt blew up...

I saw footage of this launch live on the NASA channel... Quite an accomplishment...

The engines actually operated on two different fuel types, first one source, then the hydrogen supply, then back to the original source... (cant remember what the mix was)...

Also the fastest seperation speed for a airbreather vehicle ever achieved...

CAG out...

Aren't they testing a SCRAMJET? Essentially what they plan to use on future cruise missiles?

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Centurian

umnmm, not on cruise missiles, but on the next space vehicle as one of the launch stages...

It would be impossible for a cruise missile to hide from radar at that speed... or to avoid terrain or to fly at low altitude at that speed in that dense an atmosphere...

Not according to the US DOD.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ ... strike.htm

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Centurian

Yes and that is NOT a cruise missile, despite its title...

Cent I think they have their termonology incorrect...

Its simply a hypersonic missile... not to different in approach to the old Talos which used a ramjet to accelerate the missile to mach 3... and it was designed by my Dad back in the 50s for the USN as a surface to surface and surface to air missile...


I don't see where this missile actually qualifies as a cruise missile, since it has no wings or other conventional flight controls and relies on thrust and thrust vectoring to fly and not aerodynamics, thus its a regular missile, intermediate ranged...

They may be attempting to classify it as a cruise missle, to avoid some of the SALT II limiations on intermediate missile development, but its no cruise missile, no matter how you look at it...


CAG out...

Yes but it has a long range and it cruises to the target at set speed, attacks, and destroys the target. How is that not a cruise missile? Or must a cruise missile be subsonic? As far as I've come to understand a cruise missile is a long range missile launched from aircraft, land, or sea, that has a set flight pattern to the target and impacts the target with great accuracy.

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Centurian

actually the missile qualifies as a cruise missile through only one of the requirements... that it is powered by an air breathing engine... However so was the Talos and so is the meteor, and I am sure you would not call either of these weapons cruise missiles...

The other definitions of a cruise missile is that it 'flies' to target via aerodynamic lift with items such as wings or at the very least a lifting body (Like the test vehicle used by NASA in the original description above)...

This missile is more of a cross, its design is that of a standard missile with no aerodynamic assistance for lift and relies on pure thrust to sustain flight, but uses an air breather engine to sustain it...

But in the reality of daylight, its simply a missile, not a real crusie missile, though I am certain the US will use the airbreather engine description to skirt SALT II or START limitations...

CAG out...

To hell with SALT and START It's non-nuclear anyway, it's conventional so what would be the problem?

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Centurian

because it can carry a nuclear warhead so it falls under the limitations on intermediate ranged missile development...