Hypersonic air vehicle based on the X-51

What about a very quick trip to New York from London, that will last a bit more than an hour? Say hello to the new hypersonic air vehicle.

How the Waverider might look like.  Credit EPA

The idea of constructing a new hypersonic air vehicle based on the X-51 Waverider, is now interesting the Air Force.

Experts at the Air Force Research Laboratory and the Pentagon, are working to create a new hypersonic aircraft that can travel at speeds up to Mach 5, by 2023.

A successful flight test of the X-51 Waverider at 60,000 feet above the Pacific Ocean was made on May 2013.

Hypersonic air vehicle based on the X-51 Waverider

Mica Endsley, chief scientist, that was working with DARPA, to bring the plane into action by 2023, told to military.com:

‘X-51 was really a proof of concept test. It showed that you could get a scram jet engine, launch it off an aircraft and it could go hypersonic.

It was able to go more than Mach 5 until it ran out of fuel. It was a very successful test of an airborne hypersonic weapons system.’

via metro