NASA DFRC release 04-49: X-43A captive carry status update

NASA News
National Aeronautics and
Space Administration
Dryden Flight Research Center
P.O. Box 273
Edwards, California 93523
Phone (661) 276-3449
FAX (661) 276-3566

Sept. 28, 2004

Alan Brown
NASA Dryden Flight Research Center
(661) 276-2665


RELEASE 04-49

X-43A STATUS UPDATE:

CAPTIVE CARRY REHEARSAL FLIGHT SUCCESSFUL; MACH 10 FREE FLIGHT NEXT

NASA aeronautics researchers are looking forward to flying the X-43A
research aircraft at speeds up to 10 times the speed of sound later
this fall, following a successful "captive carry" dress rehearsal
flight from NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center Sept. 27.

According to X-43A lead operations engineer David McAllister, who
served as test director for the mission, the captive carry flight
duplicated all operational functions of the planned 7,000-mph - or
Mach 10 - flight and served as a training exercise for staff, except
that the X-43A and its modified Pegasus booster were not released
from NASA's B-52B launch aircraft and their engines were not ignited.

"We have two primary purposes for doing a captive carry flight," said
McAllister. "The first is to make sure that the X-43 and its booster
rocket - two highly complex systems - are ready for flight. The
second is to make sure we're well trained. It's a very big operation
(and) we want to make sure that all those people and all those
systems are ready to go."

The X-43A is powered by a revolutionary air-breathing
supersonic-combustion ramjet - or "scramjet" - engine. Scramjet
engines could enable future hypersonic aircraft or space-access
vehicles to either carry a greater payload or be smaller and lighter,
since they would not have to carry large oxidizer tanks as
present-day launch rockets do. If successful, the Mach 10 flight will
break all speed records for an aircraft powered by an air-breathing
engine.

After a review of captive-carry flight data, project engineers are
expected to set a tentative date for the final X-43A flight for early
November.

The X-43A project is part of the Hyper-X hypersonic research program
led by NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate and operated
jointly by NASA's Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va., and Dryden
Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif. The program aims to
demonstrate air-breathing engine technologies that promise to
increase payload capacity - or reduce vehicle size for the same
payload - for future hypersonic aircraft and reusable space launch
vehicles.

Editors: Photos to support this release are available in
publication-quality resolution at:

http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/Gallery/Photo/X-43A/index.html

Captions: ED04-0261-01, ED04-0261-02 -- NASA's B-52B launch aircraft
takes off carrying the third X-43A hypersonic research vehicle on a
captive-carry evaluation flight Sept. 27, 2004.

For further information about the X-43A and NASA's Hyper-X hypersonic
research program on the Internet, log on to:
http://www.nasa.gov/missions/research/x43-main.html

For more information about NASA aeronautics research on the Internet, visit:

http://www.aeronautics.nasa.gov/

- NASA -

--
---------------------------

Jacques :-)

www.spacepatches.info