Battleangel

NASA has set Saturday, March 27 for the flight of the experimental X-43A research vehicle. The flight is part of the Hyper-X program, a research effort to demonstrate alternate propulsion technologies for access to space and high-speed flight within the atmosphere.

The flight will provide unique free flight data about hypersonic (faster than Mach 5) air-breathing engine technologies that have large potential pay-offs. The unpiloted 12 foot-long vehicle, part aircraft and part spacecraft, will be dropped from a B-52,aircraft. It will be boosted to nearly 100,000 feet by a rocket and released over the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division Sea Range over the Pacific Ocean off the coast of southern Calif. It will fly under its own power at approximately 5,000 mph.

In a scramjet (supersonic-combustion ramjet), the flow of air through the engine remains supersonic for optimum engine efficiency and vehicle speed. The rocket boost and subsequent separation from the rocket to get to the scramjet test condition have complex elements that must work properly for mission success. There are few or no moving parts. Achieving proper ignition and combustion, in a matter of milliseconds, proved to be an engineering challenge, but NASA is ready to prove air-breathing scramjets work.

This is the second flight in the X-43A project. On June 2, 2001, the first X-43A vehicle was lost moments after release from the B-52. Following booster ignition, the vehicle deviated from its flight path and was deliberately destroyed. The mishap investigation concluded there was no single contributing factor, but the root cause of the problem was identified as the control system of the booster.