The new X-51A by Boeing could be full yoperational by 2023 and cross the United States in 30 minutes. Here is a bit more on the invention:
Several tests of hypersonic projectiles have already been carried out.
Air Force Chief Scientist Mica Endsley told Military.com that the Air Force and DARPA, the Pentagon’s research entity, plan to have a new and improved hypersonic air vehicle by 2023.
The X-51A SED program is intended to demonstrate air breathing hypersonic propulsion using a Pratt & Whitney Rocket dyne scramjet. The 25-foot long, 4,000 pound vehicle will be carried aloft on a B-52H Stratofortress and released in the Point Mugu Sea Range. A solid rocket booster will propel it to nearly Mach 5, where the scramjet will take over and continue to propel the X-51A for another 4 minutes to nearly Mach 6.
Let’s check this thing out in the video on page 2
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Cool, they build a Railgun capable of firing projectiles at Mach 10 I believe…
It actually can’t move across the U.S. in 30 minutes, mostly because it’s still a theoretical idea and it hasn’t been built yet. A scale version hasn’t even been tested yet.
Nice.
Not 100% accurate Luke. They have built test vehicles, but all 3 of them (that we know of) disintegrated.