Dryden Home > Collections > Photo Home > X-43A > Photo # ED04-0261-1 |
NASA's B-52B launch aircraft takes off carrying the third X-43A hypersonic research vehicle on a captive carry evaluation flight September 27, 2004. |
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Photo Number: | ED04-0261-1 |
Photo Date: | September 27, 2004 |
Formats: |
548x480 JPEG Image (101 KBytes) 1169x1024 JPEG Image (378 KBytes) 2739x2400 JPEG Image (1995 KBytes) |
Photo Description: |
Attached to the same B-52B mothership that once launched X-15 research aircraft in the 1960s, NASA's third X-43A performed a captive carry evaluation flight from Edwards Air Force Base, California on September 27, 2004. The X-43 remained mated to the B-52 throughout this mission, intended to check its readiness for launch scheduled later in the fall. |
Project Description: |
The X-43A is powered by a revolutionary supersonic-combustion ramjet - or "scramjet" - engine. If successful, the Mach 10 flight will break all speed records for an aircraft powered by an air-breathing engine. The X-43 is part of the Hyper-X hypersonic research program led by NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, and operated jointly by NASA's Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va., and Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif. The program aims to demonstrate air-breathing engine technologies that promise to increase payload capacity - or reduce vehicle size for the same payload - for future hypersonic aircraft and reusable space launch vehicles. |
NASA Photo by: | Tom Tschida |
Keywords: | X-43, X-43A, Hyper-X, ship #3, hypersonic, scramjet, captive carry, takeoff, mach 10 flight, Langley |
Dryden Home > Collections > Photo Home > X-43A > Photo # ED04-0261-1 |
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Last Modified: September 27, 2004 |