http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/techno...51a-waverider-scramjet-plane-that-can-1260073 News has been quiet on this lately... I hope it's a successful test. I'd love to fly hypersonically. Apologies for linking to such a crap newspaper... was in a rush this morning
I have a question? I seem to recall that scramjets only start to work at a certain speed so how do they get a production aircraft up to that speed? Also I thought supersonic flight was banned over most of the world?
I guess more conventional jet engines would be used over land and to get the aircraft to speed to enable the scramjet. Supersonic would be over oceans.
That severely limits where it can fly though which is one of the main reasons Concorde failed. I suspect if the Americans build a hypersonic jet first the ban will be lifted over there.
And that's the reason why this won't really take off (pun intended) for anything but millitary applications - Hypersonic missiles etc. Carrying multiple sets of engines is very inneficient - why carry all that extra weight?. What you need is an engine that can transition from sub sonic to hyper sonic modes. Take a look at what Reaction Engines are doing with their air-breathing rocket engine. Or the research around Pulse Detonation Engines (PDEs)
Weren't we all supposed to be flying long distances in short times using sub-orbital routes by now? I'm disappointed that the future that was sold to me in my youth is nothing like the present of today. I want my flying car and my robot butler, dammit!
I just want a decent AI... hell I'd even settle for a crazy one like GLaDOS, HAL or ViKi! Jarvis is far too far off... but psycho AI... yes please!
I would imagine that the fuel required to fly at that speed would run out pretty quickly...most likely 300 seconds for a good reason. Maybe why the tech has never really taken off (pun intended). Probably shouldn't read too much into the fact that it is missile sized, shaped and launched...
curious to know how the test went, BBC reported that the experiment is to do with missile research with potential for technologies transferring into commercial flight. Personally I believe Boeing is going down the correct route in terms of developement.
Well, the Beeb is saying the flight went ahead: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19257769 But there will not be any data or reports on how successful it was until later today.
I can't say I'm disappointed. I'm not much more happy about America developing weapons that can strike anywhere in the world that quickly, than I would be about anyone else developing them. I wish they'd spend more money on their infrastructure and people, than on killing other nations' people as easily as possible.
