They Tried, Tried Again

NASA's radical experiment in SCRAMJET technology was put to a third and final test Tuesday as its X-43A set a new flight speed record of close to 7,000 miles an hour.

"The research vehicle was absolutely rock-solid stable," said Griff Corpening, chief engineer on two previous X-43A flights. "All indications (are) we had a successful experiment."

Mounted on a Pegasus rocket, the X-43A was dropped from the wing of a B-52 as it soared 40,000 feet over the Pacific. The separation went smoothly and the Hyper-X vehicle accelerated to nearly Mach 10 as it climbed to an altitude of 110,000 feet, flying west out over the ocean. Telemetry was abundant, control surfaces were steady and reactive and, after its 90-second burn had been completed, the aircraft eventually impacted the surface at approximately Mach 0.9.

It was the third X-43A vehicle to fly. The first was destroyed in 2001 when its booster rocket veered off course. The second flew last March, reaching a speed of Mach 6.83 -- almost 5,000 miles an hour.

Tuesday's launch marked another milestone. It was the last for NASA's B-52 mothership. That aircraft had been in service since the early 1960s and was used to launch what is now the second-fastest aircraft ever to fly -- the X-15.

FMI: www.nasa.gov