An unmanned experimental aircraft known as the Waverider or X-51A designed to fly six times the speed of sound broke apart over the Pacific Ocean seconds into a military test flight due to a faulty control fin.The problem with the fin on the craft was identified in a test flight on Tuesday, 16 seconds after a rocket booster on the remotely monitored craft was ignited to propel it forward, the Air Force said in a statement.
Even if the test had been a success, the aircraft would have crashed at the end of the flight in any case and was not considered retrievable.The Waverider was designed to reach speeds of Mach 6 or above, six times the speed of sound and fast enough to zoom from New York to London in less than an hour. The military has its eye on using the Waverider program to develop missiles with non-nuclear explosives that could strike anywhere in the world ...
The Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle (LEMV) is seen above Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey during its first flight, August 7, 2012. The LEMV, like a blimp, is said to be capable of carrying multiple intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance payloads for more than 21 days at altitudes greater than 22,000 feet. REUTERS/U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command
The EADS Atrium aircraft, which will enable space tourists to experience weightlessness briefly outside the earth's atmosphere. The aircraft, about the size of an executive jet, is designed to carry four passengers around 100 kilometres from the earth, where they will be able to experience about three minutes of weightlessness and see the curve of the earth. REUTERS/EADS Atrium/Marc Newson Ltd/NASA
DARPA's Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 (HTV-2) in an artist's conception. The unmanned hypersonic glider is capable of flying at 20 times the speed of sound. REUTERS/DARPA
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