Follow LA Observed on Twitter here
Last week, the Air Force did a test run of what it calls the X-51 WaveRider. It's a hypersonic missile that they detached from a B-52 flying 50,000 feet just off the coast. It flew at more than 3,500 miles-per-hour for about three-and-a-half minutes before dropping into the ocean. Now, we're talking Superman speed - faster than a speeding bullet. The military has been working on hypersonic technology for many years, but it's really slow going; previous efforts at flying this fast lasted no more than 10 seconds, so this latest effort, the work of Boeing's research center in Long Beach and at Rocketdyne in Canoga Park, was a big deal. The immediate objective is a new generation of cruise missiles that could potentially strike anywhere in the world within an hour or less, but how about using the technology for commercial applications? As in flying from Los Angeles to New York in 30 minutes.
, but that's well into the future for all kinds of reasons (there are physiological issues of humans traveling so fast, not to mention the logistics of being able to take off and land). Still, with all the bad news on the BP oil spill it's nice to hear about something that technology can do, at least one day.
Check out this very cool video of the unmanned X-51 WaveRider that was detached from a B-52 off the coast near Point Magu and shot across the Pacific for 200 seconds before plunging into the ocean. The exercise shattered aviation records, although the Air Force had been hoping to have the aircraft reach 4,200 mph and fly for five minutes. From the LAT:
Since the 1960s, the Air Force has been flirting with hypersonic technology, which can propel vehicles at a velocity that cannot be achieved from traditional turbine-powered jet engines. But the technology has been exceedingly difficult to perfect. Previous attempts produced very limited results including flights that lasted only a few seconds, said Peter Wilson, senior defense analyst with Rand Corp. It has held great promise, however. A passenger aircraft powered by hypersonic engines could fly from Los Angeles to New York in 30 minutes. It also could travel faster than existing cruise missiles.
Local angle: The aircraft is being developed at Boeing's Phantom Works research center in Long Beach and Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne in Canoga Park.
Mark Lacter created the LA Biz Observed blog in 2006. He posted
until the day before his death on Nov. 13, 2013.