The X-43 (HyperX) is the test bed for hypersonic flight (> Mach 5) using a scramjet, a high altitude, pulsed rocket like jet engine that uses a moving air inlet to tune the input airstream for optimum fuel ignition in the rocket like engine. The X-43 was to have been flown for the first time in May-June of 2001, but the first flight was aborted and the test exploded by remote control as the Pegasus rocket motor intended to accelerate the craft veered off course after approximately five seconds into the test flight. The flight controllers quickly assessed the erratic flight pattern and made the decision to command a down range destruction command which destroyed the complete "Hyper Stack" which includes the X-43 vehicle and its Pegasus flight package.
The HyperX program is a multi-contractor extravaganza including MicroCraft, Inc. who was awarded the actual vehicle construction project in March of 1997. Also included is Orbital Sciences who will build the actual launch vehicles based on the technology. Currently the X-43 is taken up to Mach 7 and Mach 10 by a small, aircraft launchable Pegasus booster rocket (used in early Anti-Satellite weapons research). Also commercial aerospace companiees such as Boeing are involved in the research.
The three scaled down test vehicles are 12 foot long a wingspace of approximately 5 feet, and feature a "supersonic combustion ramjet, or scramjet" according to NASA sources. The engine uses a hydrogen based fuel and the high speed air is compressed in the engine uses no moving parts to create the temperatures necessary to produce combustion. NASAs description of the project explains that the vehicles are part of a NASA Strategic Plan that
Launched from a B-52 mother ship like so many other X aircraft, the X-43 was to test a profile which included engine start and a run of its scramjet for up to 10 seconds to prove the engine technology and airframe was ready for and expanded launch vehicle and flight test regime.
Looking closely at the picture, the Pegasus rocket is about ten times as large as the tiny black X-43 MicroCraft Inc. model used to test the small version of the engine and airframe (in the picture, the white HYPER-X marked vechicle under the wing of the large B-52 is the Pegasus, and the X-43 is a tiny black arrow that appears to nearly touch the B-52 starboard cockpit window).
The destruction of the first of three craft was an obvious let down to the development team and another failure in a spate of recent NASA foulups that has worried government and NASA administrators in the last five years. Amongst the list is a Mars mission that failed to take into account metric measurements on thrust versus fuel ratios, and several unmanned launches. The Air Force has not been immune either with a decade of succesful Titan 44D launches puncuated by seemingly random catastrophic and spectacular failures.
Despite the destruction of the first test vehicle, scientists are hopeful that the craft will fly at the next attempt, since the cause of the incident was clearly a fault during the Pegasus phase of the launch.
The launch sequence is a drop from the B-52G mothership, a short fall then ignition of the Pegasus booster which is supposed to take the test vehicle up to a speed where the scramjet can successfully ignite and operate (greater than Mach 2, and up to and perhaps beyond Mach 5).
The Hypersonic X-42 program was supposed to have been killed a decade ago as part of the National Aerospace Plane (NASP) program, but the flight regime portion of the program was either kept on or redesignated according to sources in NASA. It was also covered in the wrappings of top secret work for some time, virtually disappearing off the "radar scopes" of NASA followers.
This spectacular failure of the craft will undoubtedly bring out the
nay sayers
and of course has made its existence much more widely known.
UPDATE:
In November of 2004, the X-43 testbed satisfied it's primary test goal
and acheived a speed of Mach 10+ over the Pacific Test Range. The
test proves the no moving part scramjet, and the materials used in its
construction are ready for Mach 15 and beyond tests.
| Mission Description | Length | Height | Wingspan | Propulsion | Speed Goal | Management |
| Hypersonic Test Bed designed to test airframe materials and engine design for extended, commercial and military hypersonic flight regimes. The test program is designed to first test a remote controlled aircraft to prove basic engine and airframe airworthiness and then manned flight testing to design up to the performance envelope. | 12 feet | 2 feet | 5 feet | Scramjet (pulsed air inlet, exotic fuel) | Initial Mach 7; Max: Mach 10 | NASA Dryden and Langley |
