United States Air Force Maj. Andrew Murphy couldn't see the hypersonic vehicle's rocket ignite, but he could hear it — and feel it.
The roar flowed through Murphy on May 1 as he sat at the controls of his B-52 Stratofortress, which had just released the Air Force's unmanned X-51A Waverider about 50,000 feet (15,000 meters) above the Pacific Ocean off the California coast.
When the rocket fires, "it vibrates the airplane, and it just feels great, because you know the thing is working," Maj. Murphy told reporters last month. "And then you see the contrail. By the time you see it, it is miles and miles and miles out in front of you."
The rocket accelerated the Waverider to Mach 4.8 — 4.8 times the speed of sound — in just 26 seconds on the May 1 mission, which was the fourth and final test flight of theX-51A program.
The experimental craft then separated from its booster rocket and sped up to Mach 5.1 at an altitude of 60,000 feet (18,300 m), powered by its air-breathing supersonic combustion ramjet (scramjet) engine.
Cheers erupted within the B-52 when word came from the control room that the Waverider's scramjet engine had kicked on as planned, Maj. Murphy said.
"That was the key for the flight," he said. "That was what we were trying to accomplish."
The roar flowed through Murphy on May 1 as he sat at the controls of his B-52 Stratofortress, which had just released the Air Force's unmanned X-51A Waverider about 50,000 feet (15,000 meters) above the Pacific Ocean off the California coast.
When the rocket fires, "it vibrates the airplane, and it just feels great, because you know the thing is working," Maj. Murphy told reporters last month. "And then you see the contrail. By the time you see it, it is miles and miles and miles out in front of you."
The rocket accelerated the Waverider to Mach 4.8 — 4.8 times the speed of sound — in just 26 seconds on the May 1 mission, which was the fourth and final test flight of theX-51A program.
The experimental craft then separated from its booster rocket and sped up to Mach 5.1 at an altitude of 60,000 feet (18,300 m), powered by its air-breathing supersonic combustion ramjet (scramjet) engine.
Cheers erupted within the B-52 when word came from the control room that the Waverider's scramjet engine had kicked on as planned, Maj. Murphy said.
"That was the key for the flight," he said. "That was what we were trying to accomplish."
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