The unmanned aircraft X-51A WaveRider experimental, a hypersonic aircraft capable of flying over the Pacific Ocean some 5,793 kilometers per hour, was tested by the Pentagon today on a flight "key" development of its technology, a source confirmed to Efe Department of Defense.
From a hangar at Edwards Air Force U.S. in the Mojave Desert (California), a team of aerospace engineers tuned the device, which could cover the distance between New York and London in less than an hour.
The project, developed by the U.S. Space Agency (NASA) and the Research Projects Agency Defense Advanced U.S. (DARPA), was tested by anchoring the X-51A WaveRider the wing of an old B-52 bomber.
The X-51A WaveRider should have flown at hypersonic speed for 300 seconds to dive later in the Pacific Ocean.
Although the same sources gave no information on the results, it was successful, the ship should have been destroyed during testing, making it impossible to recover, but engineers could use all the data recorded during the flight for technology development hypersonic military uses.
The test flight X-51A was the third experiment a program that began in 2004.
WaveRider's first, built by Boeing, was tested in May 2010 to 3500 kilometers per hour for 143 seconds before a glitch put an end to the test before time, and the second, who was executed in June 2011 and ended earlier than expected but it did create facts.
The Air Force plans to develop and use technology to move hypersonic missiles or aircraft anywhere in the world in minutes instead of hours, in order not to let the enemy reaction time.
In addition to speed, hypersonic aircraft will fly at high altitudes out of reach of enemy fire or a missile.
NASA and the Pentagon is funding three national centers in the country to study hypersonic flight.
The WaveRider program will cost $140 million as estimated by the site specialized in military development, Globalsecurity.com.
