In
a captive-carry test Dec. 9, a B-52 carried aloft the X-51 Waverider hypersonic test vehicle over Edwards AFB, Calif., paving the way for the X-51’s flight test in early 2010. At that time, researchers expect the Waverider to light its supersonic combustion ramjet engine for a five-minute hypersonic flight over the Pacific Ocean. “We successfully captured all of our test points without any anomalies,” said Charlie Brink, X-51A program manager with Air Force Research Lab’s propulsion directorate at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, of last week’s test. AFRL, which has teamed with DARPA, Boeing, Pratt & Whitney, and Rocketdyne on the project, expects to conduct one more “full dress rehearsal” before the first hypersonic test flight in February, said Brink. (Wright-Patt release; mating tests were conducted in summer 2009)
The Smithsonian’s announcement that an F-117A Nighthawk, tail number 85-0818, is headed to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum, or NASM, is welcome news. The acquisition of this Nighthawk fills a long-standing historical gap—indeed, need—in the collections of what is generally considered the world’s premier air and space…
