AF plans X-51 supersonic engine flight test - Military News | News From Afghanistan, Iraq And Around The World - Military Times

AF plans X-51 supersonic engine flight test

DAYTON, Ohio — The engine in an Air Force program designed to catapult planes from the atmosphere into space will get its first flight test in the fall with a skyscraping ride above the Pacific Ocean.

Officials expect the X-51 eventually will be used to deploy satellites and for reconnaissance or other military missions.

“The long-range goal of this for the Air Force is access to space,” said Charlie Brink, an Air Force Research Laboratory propulsion official who manages the X-51 program from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

The aircraft, to be sent aloft Oct. 27, will be sped up by an Army missile booster. When its special air-breathing jet engine kicks in, the vehicle will soar to six times the speed of sound.

The engine, called a scramjet, works at speeds that would melt conventional jet engines, but it requires exotic materials. Air goes through them in a supersonic blast, making the process of mixing and burning fuel an extreme challenge.

The Air Force expects that the aircraft will fly for about five minutes before crashing into the Pacific. The other three X-51s are to suffer similar watery fates.

A B-52 jet from Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., will carry the assembly to 50,000 feet to get the test flight under way.

The October flight — and three other test flights planned in early 2010 — are designed to demonstrate the practicality of using the scramjet engine to power and control an aircraft at extreme speeds. The X-51 has been dubbed the “Waverider” because it stays aloft, in part, with lift generated by the shock waves of its own flight.

The $246.5 million development program by the Air Force has been under way since December 2003. The price tag includes the four X-51s and their engines, government support, and research ongoing at Wright-Patterson and Edwards in conjunction with industry partners.

Brink compares the work of developing scramjets with aviation’s earlier transition from propellers to jet engines. Air Force leadership will decide the program’s next step, depending on how the project turns out, Brink said.