NASA Funds Study of Sideways Flying Supersonic Plane - Video

NASA has approved a $100,000 grant for development of a supersonic plane concept pioneered by Gecheng Zha, a professor at the University of Miami.

Called the Supersonic Bidirectional Flying Wing, the concept addresses the main conflict in supersonic design: a supersonic vessel needs large wings to get off the ground, but small wings to achieve supersonic speeds.

Zha has dealt with this problem by the simple expedient of creating two sets of wings.

The wings are positioned at 90° to each other.

Once the plane has taken off using the longer wings, it rotates and uses the lower drag wings to go supersonic.

It is expected to take decades to develop the technology to the point of implementation. The project is one in a new wave of technology development in the realm of supersonic and hypersonic flight.

In August, Boeing’s X-51A Waverider, developed for the US AirForce, failed to go hypersonic in a flight test. Russia is developing Hammer, a hypersonic booster intended to launch satellites of up to 800 kg into low Earth orbit.

Meanwhile, Elon Musk, CEO and founder of SpaceX, has spoken of developing a hovering supersonic electric jet.

The only commercial supersonic passenger jet ever developed, the Concorde, was retired in 2003 when it was unable to achieve commercial success following a combination of a 2000 fatal crash and the reduced air traffic that resulted from the 2001 New York terrorist attacks.

The fastest passenger plane in use today is the Mach 0.9 Cessna Citation X which carries 7 passengers.

US Air force Hypersonic flight Crashes and Burns!

US Air Force test of its hypersonic X-51A Waverider vehicle, an unmanned aircraft designed to fly six times the speed of sound, ended in catastrophe.

The hypersonic test vehicle lost control and was destroyed before reaching it's 4,600 mph goal.

Controllers identified a fault in one of the X-51A Waverider's control fins shortly after its rocket booster had fired, the service said in a written statement. 

About 16 seconds into the flight, the aircraft "was not able to maintain control due to the faulty control fin and was lost," the service said.

The Air Force had hoped the craft would be able to reach speeds of up to 4,600 mph. The service said it will release details of the failed test in a few weeks, after researchers are able to analyze the data.

The US Air Force hasn’t disclosed the cost of the WaveRider program, but Globalsecurity.org, a website that tracks military spending, says the project has cost $250-300 million since it began in 2004.  

After this loss during testing, only one aircraft remains, and Air Force officials have not decided when or if it will fly.

Background
At just 25 feet long and only a few inches in diameter, the Waverider is a far cry from an aircraft that can carry people anywhere. But the technology one day could send people or troops across the world in just minutes.



Hypersonic travel, meaning speeds of Mach 5 (3,800 miles per hour) and above, has been a focus of the military as it looks to perfect a technology that can become the new stealth. The Pentagon says that countries are becoming wiser to US stealth technology and it is increasingly becoming a less effective tool.

Hypersonic flight does away with stealth because its speeds allow for greater flexibility and control for missions that are not possible with current jet technology.

But in the commercial world, it can mean flights are so quick a flight attendant hardly would have time to serve drinks and a meal, and there would be no more groggy feeling after those transcontinental flights.

The technology is significant because a hypersonic aircraft breaths oxygen, like a regular jet engine, but reaches speeds five times that of commercial aircraft. To get similar results, the only other option is rocket power.

"You would have to have bulky fuel tanks, nozzles and plumbing and that makes rocket power more heavy and more expensive," says Dora Musielak, an adjunct professor of physics at the University of Texas at Arlington.

US Air Force tests hypersonic UAV

The US Air Force on Wednesday test launched a hypersonic cruise missile, with the vehicle accelerating to Mach 6 before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean, officials said.

The Air Force said the test flight of the X-15A Waverider lasted more than 200 seconds, the longest ever hypersonic flight powered by scramjet propulsion. The previous record was 12 seconds in a NASA X-43 vehicle.

"We are ecstatic to have accomplished most of our test points on the X-51A's very first hypersonic mission," Charlie Brink, program manager with the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio.

"We equate this leap in engine technology as equivalent to the post-World War Two jump from propeller-driven aircraft to jet engines," he said.

But about 200 seconds into the flight, "a vehicle anomaly occurred and the flight was terminated," the Air Force said in a statement.

"Engineers are busily examining the data to identify the cause of the problem," it said.

The Waverider was launched from Edwards Air Force Base in California, then carried under the wing of a B-52 aircraft before being released at an altitude of 50,000 feet off the Pacific coast.

A solid rocket booster then propelled the vehicle to about a speed of about Mach 4.8, before the X-51's special scramjet engine ignited.

The Waverider, built by Boeing and Pratt and Whitney Rocketdyne, reached an altitude of 70,000 feet and a top speed of Mach 6, the Air Force said.

Hypersonic flight begins at Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound.