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X-51A First Flight in Fourth Quarter 2009
Boeing’s X-51A WaveRider Scramjet engine will have its first airborne test around November / December 2009, revealed Joseph Vogel, X-51A Program Manager, Advanced Network and Space Systems.
The vehicle will reach a speed of Mach 6 and the engine will burn for around 300 seconds. It will be launched from a B-52 bomber flying out of Edwards Air Force base. Once the B-52 reaches 50,000 feet it will release the X-51A which will then engage an ATACMS booster engine that will take it up to 65,000 feet and accelerate the vehicle up to Mach 4.8 after around a 30 second burn. The booster will then separate from the Scramjet and which will then fire for the 300 second burn and take the vehicle even higher up to 80,000 feet.
It is expected to travel over 300 miles.
“The X-51A can carry up to 280lbs of fuel of which all but 10lbs will be used during the test,” said Vogel. The overall weight of the vehicle is 4,000lb of which the booster accounts for half of that. The vehicle is 301 inches in length from top to tail.
Although it was hoped that around 10 aircraft would be made for the funding that the project has allocated to it – around $246 million of which $211 million is being spent directly on the programme.
Unfortunately at a time when materials were being sourced, oil and materials had spiked last year and it was only possible to buy material enough for four aircraft. They will be flown over periods of 30 days, although this may be extended depending on the results of each test.
The vehicle will have a tungsten nose and the will be covered with a lightweight abulator material to disperse the heat – which is expected to reach up to 2,700 degrees on the nose. The underside of the vehicle will be protected with tiles similar to those used on space shuttle.
Although previous research projects have flown faster – at Mach 9.8 – the vehicle, the Hyper-X (X-43) only had a fuel burn of 10 seconds at the end of which the engine had melted.
“This is an unusual programme as we have actually designed the aircraft around the engine,” said Vogel.
The X-51A WaveRider programme is a consortium of the US Air Force, DARPA, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne and Boeing. Results will also be shared with NASA.
By Andrew Drwiega, Phantom Works, Long Beach, California.
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