X-51A Waverider achieves Mach 5,1 breakthrough in final flight

The final flight of the X-51A Waverider test program has accomplished a breakthrough in the development of flight reaching Mach 5.1 over the Pacific Ocean May 1.

af.mil

Fourth Hypersonic X-51A To Fly In Mid-2013

The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) plans to fly the fourth and final Boeing X-51A WaveRider hypersonic engine demonstrator in mid-2013.

aviationweek

X-51A Waverider test flight ends in failure

The US Air Force Research Laboratory's (AFRL) third test flight of the Boeing/Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne X-51A Waverider hypersonic test vehicle on 14 August has ended in failure.

Though the test article was successfully launched from a Boeing B-52 bomber near Point Mugu, California, the vehicle developed a fault after only 16s of flight-- before the X-51A separated from its rocket booster. When the X51A did separate from the booster rocket 15s later, the USAF says it could not maintain control of the vehicle due to a faulty control fin.

The X-51A subsequently crashed.

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El demostrador hipersónico X-51A vuela durante 140 segundos/ X-51A flies, for 140 seconds only

El primer vuelo del X-51A ha sido considerado como éxito después de que consiguiera alcanzar Mach 5 a 70.000 pies. La prueba ha durado 140 segundos.
www.flightglobal.com
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The first X-51A flight was considered successful after it acheived Mach 5 speed at 70,000ft. The test last 140 seconds before it was aborted till to lost of telemetry.
www.flightglobal.com

Primer vuelo hipersónico del X-51/X-51A will make its first hypersonic flight test

Si las condiciones meteorológicas no lo impiden, el demostrador de vuelos hipersónicos X-51A Waverider realizará su primer vuelo el proximo 25 de mayo de 2010, lanzado desde un B-52 desde las costas del Sureste de California.
Se prevee que su vuelo dure cinco minutos y que acelere hasta Mach 6, transmitiendo gran cantidad de datos a estaciones en tierra, antes de caer en el Pacífico. No hay planes de recuperar el vehículo. En esos cinco minutos se espera obtener mas información que en todos las pruebas anteriores. El vuelo hipersónico mas largo realizado anteriormente con un motor de propulsión a chorro, fue realizado por la NASA, con el vehículo X-43, fué mas rápido pero solo duró 10 segundos.
El X-51A es fruto de la colaboración entre la USAF, Boeing Company, Pratt & Whitney, y otros organismos gubernamentales. Un P-3 Orion de la US Navy ayudará en la transmisión de datos. Este será el tercer vuelo del X-51 que ya lo ha hecho anteriormente fijado en los pilones alares de sujección de un B-52.
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Weather permitting, Air Force officials said the X-51A Waverider will make its first hypersonic flight test attempt May 25 after it is released from a B-52 Stratofortress off the southern coast of California.
The unmanned X-51A is expected to fly autonomously for five minutes, powered by a supersonic combustion scramjet engine, accelerating to about Mach 6 and transmitting vast amounts of data to ground stations before breaking up after splashing down into the Pacific, as planned. There are no plans to recover the flight test vehicle, one of four built. In those 300 seconds, it is hoped to learn more about hypersonic flight with a practical scramjet engine than all previous flight tests combined.
The longest previous hypersonic scramjet flight test performed by a NASA X-43 in 2004was faster, but lasted only about 10 seconds.
The X-51A program is a collaborative effort by representatives from the Air Force Research Laboratory and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, with industry partners The Boeing Company and Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne.
A U.S. Navy P-3 Orion will aid in transmitting telemetry data.
The May 25 hypersonic test will actually be the third time the X-51 has flown, but in each previous instance it has remained attached to the B-52's wing.
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