Hyper-X: Even the Name Sounds Fast

As this issue is chock full of info related to aerospace, we thought we would take a look at what is the fastest jet aircraft in the world: The NASA X-43A scramjet (nasa.gov). This aircraft reached a speed of Mach 9.6 (6,337 mph) in a test flight over the Pacific Ocean west of California on November 16, 2004. And it has a Guinness World Record certificate to show for it.

Scramjet? This is a supersonic-combustion ramjet. Ramjet? A type of engine that uses the high air pressure that exists at high speeds to provide thrust (conventional jet engines make use of a compressor to compress the air). So a ramjet at rest provides no thrust. So to get the X-43A going it started out attached to a B-52B.

At 40,000 ft, it was released at which point a booster rocket, a modified Pegasus booster rocket (a winged-booster rocket developed by Orbital Sciences Corp. (orbital.com)—said to be the first privately developed space launch vehicle—that’s ordinarily used for satellite deployment), kicked in. At 95,000 ft., the X-43A separated from the booster and its engine was ignited. For 10 seconds. At which point it hit the top speed. Once the engine was off, the X-43A spent another 10 minutes gliding and maneuvering.

The Hyper-X is a compact aircraft. It is just 144-in. long, 60-in. wide, and 26-in. high. No, there is no pilot.

The program was conducted by the NASA Langley Research Center and the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center.

You may be wondering why the record is so old. Well, it probably has something to do with the fact that NASA’s Hyper-X program was eight years long and represented an investment on the order of $230-million. (Why the interest in scramjets? Because unlike rockets, which require oxidizers, the scramjet breathes air so it can be smaller and lighter than a comparable rocket or it can be the same size but have the ability to handle more payload.)