X-15 record still stands…

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A NASA X-43A hypersonic unpiloted research aircraft was destroyed today while on a flight originating from the Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif.

Following pre-launch countdown and separation from the B-52, a malfunction occurred about five seconds after ignition of the Pegasus motor that caused the Hyper-X stack (Hyper-X vehicle and booster) to depart from controlled flight. The debris impacted within the pre-cleared range impact area in the Pacific Ocean.

The mishap occurred at 1:45 p.m. PDT.

There was no damage to property on the ground, and there were no injuries and no damage to the carrier aircraft. A team of qualified personnel is being formed to investigate the cause of the mishap.

This mission was the first of three flights to demonstrate an airframe-integrated, “air-breathing” propulsion system design called a scramjet, which so far has only been tested in ground facilities, such as wind tunnels.

The NASA X-43A hypersonic research vehicle and its Pegasus booster rocket, mounted beneath the wing of their B-52 mother ship, had a successful first captive-carry flight on April 18, 2001. A dress rehearsal for the subsequent free flight, the captive-carry flight kept the X-43A-and-Pegasus combination attached to the B-52’s wing pylon throughout the almost two-hour mission from NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif., over the Pacific Missile Test Range, and back to Dryden.

NASA Langley carried out various wind-tunnel tests on the X-43A design in an effort to refine the vehicle’s design. Dryden is working very closely with Langley in this refinement process, as well as working out the flight test issues, such as flight profile, vehicle instrumentation, and Pegasus/booster/Hyper-X adaptation and integration.

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What do you guys think ? Are we about to see such exotic technologies in the battlefield soon , or in this day and age of upgrades and budget cuts we ‘re gonna have to wait a few more decades ?