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| X 51 A waverider |
According to US Air force, a crucial test for experimental Mach 5 missile has ended in failure The test was last of its kind of the hypersonic X-51A Waverider cruise missile has fallen short.
The Waverider’s control fin failed, preventing the missile’s scramjet engine from starting according to Air Force confirmation.
The missile’s scramjet engine was supposed to power the missile at hypersonic speeds for 300 seconds.
Air Force stated that the missile broke apart after it separated from its preliminary rocket booster.
The missile was launched over the Pacific on Tuesday from a B-52 Stratofortress at 50,000 feet, which would then scream across the Pacific at hypersonic speeds. The missile got away from the B-52, but then flopped uncontrollably into the ocean.
The tests have cost the Pentagon some $300 million. The shortage of tangible results have also helped spoil the confidence the Air Force once had in producing a working weapon.
The 26-foot-long X-51A was supposed to be a working candidate for prompt global strike, and a safer alternative to the Air Force’s former plan to stick conventional warheads.
Theologically the X-51 works like this. After being launched from an aircraft, it fires its conventional rocket booster, which builds up subsonic speeds before the missile’s supersonic ramjet kicks in. Once the ramjet fires, the engine would begin to collect oxygen from the atmosphere and mix the air with jet fuel, burning both. The missile would next accelerate past Mach 5, staying in the air by using lift created from the missile’s shock waves.
But actually doing it is really hard as hypersonic speed generates tremendous heat and the missile also needs sophisticated guidance tools, sensors and navigation equipment to keep it in the air.
The missile’s scramjet engine was supposed to power the missile at hypersonic speeds for 300 seconds.
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| X-51A posed under B-52 wing |
The missile was launched over the Pacific on Tuesday from a B-52 Stratofortress at 50,000 feet, which would then scream across the Pacific at hypersonic speeds. The missile got away from the B-52, but then flopped uncontrollably into the ocean.
The tests have cost the Pentagon some $300 million. The shortage of tangible results have also helped spoil the confidence the Air Force once had in producing a working weapon.
The 26-foot-long X-51A was supposed to be a working candidate for prompt global strike, and a safer alternative to the Air Force’s former plan to stick conventional warheads.
Theologically the X-51 works like this. After being launched from an aircraft, it fires its conventional rocket booster, which builds up subsonic speeds before the missile’s supersonic ramjet kicks in. Once the ramjet fires, the engine would begin to collect oxygen from the atmosphere and mix the air with jet fuel, burning both. The missile would next accelerate past Mach 5, staying in the air by using lift created from the missile’s shock waves.
But actually doing it is really hard as hypersonic speed generates tremendous heat and the missile also needs sophisticated guidance tools, sensors and navigation equipment to keep it in the air.
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