ForbiddenKnowledgeTV
Alexandra Bruce
August 15, 2012
Still no official word on the results of yesterday's test flight of the unmanned X-51A WaveRider. The previous test on June 18, 2011 was a total failure, crashing off the Southern California coast and WIRED.com's Danger Room had already tweeted yesterday: "Bad news for the USAF's mach 5 missile. X-51A failed its flight test; a fin problem caused a loss of control b4 the engine could kick in."
The Tuesday August 14 test was to take off from Edwards Air Force base in California, attached to a B-52 bomber's wing. Once dropped from the wing, it was expected to fly at Mach 6, which is six times the speed of sound and over 3,600 miles per hour.
The Waverider, so-named because of its ability to ride its own shockwave, was not carrying weapons -- but it is designed to pave the way for hypersonic weapons. NASA and the Pentagon are financing hypersonic flight research in three national centers across the country, calling the technology "the new stealth."
Although boosted as paving the way for hypersonic passenger planes, the Waverider "will only have one real practical application in the medium-term, assuming the technology is successful at all. Waveriders wont ever get us to EuroDisney in barely an hour, but it may yield cruise missiles fast enough to give the U.S. and its allies a non-nuclear rapid strike capability." (- Matt Gurney NationalPost.com)
Incredibly, the aircraft's engine has almost no moving parts and is able to run on oxygen instead of having to carry large fuel tanks.
While in flight Tuesday, the WaveRider was to transmit data to orbiting aircraft and ground stations. Then, once the fuel was exhausted, it was splash down into the Pacific and be destroyed, as planned in order to cut costs.
