X-51 Waverider
Air Force’s X-51 WaveRider close to first flight
AviationDayton
The first “captive carry” flight of the Air Force’s revolutionary X-51 WaveRider is scheduled for Wednesday, Dec. 9, in California, a spokesman said today.
It will be a major step towards an eventual free flight of the experimental craft early next year and an attempt at an engineering first – reaching six times the speed of sound on the power of an air-breathing engine burning jet fuel. If achieved, it could open the door to a new class of high-speed weapons and quick-response, airplane-like space lifters.
Weather permitting on Dec. 9, a B-52 carrier jet will fly from Edwards Air Force Base with the unmanned craft snugged under a wing, Derek Kaufman, a spokesman for the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson, told AviationDayton.com.
Following successful captive carry, the next X-51 flight is expected in mid-January, said Charlie Brink, X-51 program manager for AFRL’s Propulsion Directorate at Wright-Patterson. Telemetry support and systems will be evaluated, but the X-51 will not be released from the B-52 and its engines will not ignite. It will be a “full dress rehearsal” for its first hypersonic test flight, now planned for mid-February, Brink said.
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