On 24 Aug, 10:23, me wrote:
On Mon, 23 Aug 2010 14:45:35 -0700 (PDT), wrote:
"For more than a decade Astrox worked in
semi-obscurity on several major hypersonic
programmes, including the NASA X-43A
scramjet and the Defense Advanced Research
projects Agency (DARPA) Blackswift.

But Astrox's public exposure increased
dramatically in July with the public release of
"Technology Horizons", a 20-year roadmap
for science and technology advances
published by Werner Dahm, chief scientist
of the US Air Force.

Astrox is credited within the 171-page
document for all-new images showing designs
for a very different kind of hypersonic vehicle
than those in testing today, such as the
Boeing/Pratt & Whitney X-51 Waverider."

See:

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles...afrl-reveals-a...

In an era of huge budget deficits, where's the
money for this going to come from?

Not to worry. Astrox's "designs" are really nothing more than cartoons
and wishful thinking.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

The combined cycle engines sound/look a lot like the (old?) HOTOL/
SABRE based concepts!