Key test Tuesday for hypersonic flight

Over the Pacific Ocean, there’s going to be a test of an experimental unmanned aircraft called the X-51A WaveRider. If all goes as planned, it will accelerate to about 3,600 mph — a speed that could get you from L.A. to N.Y.C. in 46 minutes.

Tuesday over the Pacific Ocean off Southern California, there’s going to be a test of an experimental aircraft called the X-51A WaveRider. If all goes as planned, it will accelerate to about 3,600 mph — a speed, as theLos Angeles Times reports, that could get you from L.A. to N.Y.C. in about 46 minutes.

That’s nearly three time faster than the Concorde used to fly. The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, “the fastest aircraft propelled by air-breathing engines,” as the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum writes, could hit 2,200 mph.

http://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/npr/158687997/key-test-tuesday-for-hypersonic-flight