X-51 WaveRider
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hypersonic-missile-20110324,0,377247.story
The U.S. Air Force plans to launch an experimental aircraft Thursday that could potentially reach speeds of 4,000 mph
X-51 WaveRider is being developed to deliver powerful warheads at tremendously high speeds with pinpoint accuracy almost anywhere on Earth.
supersonic means that an object is traveling beyond the speed of sound, or Mach 1, "hypersonic" refers to an aircraft blasting through the air at five times that speed or more.
The 14-foot aircraft was launched midair off the coast near Point Mugu, slung underneath the wing of a B-52 bomber. The WaveRider detached, falling about four seconds before its booster rocket engine ignited and propelled the aircraft to more than 70,000 feet. It then separated from the rocket and sped across the sky, powered by an air-breathing combustion engine, for more than two minutes, reaching about 3,500 mph.
The idea is to quickly deliver a conventional warhead that's capable of striking a terrorist on the run, a stockpile of chemical weapons or a ballistic missile on its way to being launched.The X-51 is a forerunner to the military's hopes for a "prompt global strike" system, which can hit anything on Earth in an hour or less
Technology like this avoids the possibility of getting into a fair fight" with an enemy.
They pretend this is about killing terrorists but really it is about staying technologically ahead of China. Our real enemy.
The U.S. Air Force plans to launch an experimental aircraft Thursday that could potentially reach speeds of 4,000 mph
X-51 WaveRider is being developed to deliver powerful warheads at tremendously high speeds with pinpoint accuracy almost anywhere on Earth.
supersonic means that an object is traveling beyond the speed of sound, or Mach 1, "hypersonic" refers to an aircraft blasting through the air at five times that speed or more.
The 14-foot aircraft was launched midair off the coast near Point Mugu, slung underneath the wing of a B-52 bomber. The WaveRider detached, falling about four seconds before its booster rocket engine ignited and propelled the aircraft to more than 70,000 feet. It then separated from the rocket and sped across the sky, powered by an air-breathing combustion engine, for more than two minutes, reaching about 3,500 mph.
The idea is to quickly deliver a conventional warhead that's capable of striking a terrorist on the run, a stockpile of chemical weapons or a ballistic missile on its way to being launched.The X-51 is a forerunner to the military's hopes for a "prompt global strike" system, which can hit anything on Earth in an hour or less
Technology like this avoids the possibility of getting into a fair fight" with an enemy.
They pretend this is about killing terrorists but really it is about staying technologically ahead of China. Our real enemy.
posted by res17 at
March 25, 2011
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