NASA's X-43A hits Mach 9.7

Cool.

Just like the bus driver on our local route...

Munich to Sydney in an hour, when do the tickets go on sale?

Think I'll wait until they find a way of accelerating it to the scramjet's operational velocity that doesn't involve strapping it to a missile before buying my tickets. Fantastic achievement nonetheless.

This is not the fastest plane. Blackbrid used to fly at mach 10.

But blackbird carried its own oxygen, this instead is a scramjet that takes oxygen (ozone at that altitude?) from the athmosphere. Apparently its quite difficult to keep combustion going when the air fuel mixture is supersonic.

The SR-71 Blackbird topped out at a little over Mach 3.

Would that be the european blackbird or the african blackbird?

Did it carry an oxygen tank on its back?

Maybe MadAxeMurderer is thinking about the X-15 project that hit Mach 6-7 if I remember correctly?
Sr-71 Blackbird was a conventional Turbojet , not a scramjet or rocket.

The reports I read said that the fastest plane was hitherto the SR-71 Blackbird (I've seen one of those - one mean looking mother), but I thought it was the X-15, or does that count more as a missile/rocket than a plane? (btw X-15 hit Mach 6.72 I thought?)

yes sorry Jimbo typo on the X15 speed

The SR-71 is the fastest air-breating manned aircraft. This new X-43A has taken the title for fastest air-breathing aircraft ever.

The big difference between the SR-71 and X-43A and the X-15 is the X-15 carried its own oxidizer e.g. it was a rocket with a two-part propellant (fuel and oxidizer).

Cool, make it to Cape Town in an hour.

Joburg - Cape Town in what 2 mins???
Kewl, work in Joburg and party all night in Cape Town every day!!

I was thinking about the plane on display on the aircraft in New York. Though it was named blackbird, guess I was wrong.

But the exciting thing about the speed of the X43 is that it doesn't carry oxygen or oxidisers, unlike previous record holding planes.

@ MadAxeMurderer

I think you're thinking of the SR-71 that's on the USS Intrepid Aerospace Museam on the Hudson River. That place rocks.

@DW I think you're right. I did mean USS Interpid Aircraft Carrier. Rocks it does.

Especially when Columbia University rents it for a party.

I don't believe any of this, Nasa have just faked some more info. Does nobody see it? 9.7? Mach 9.7
Its a figure mentioned in the news one hell of a lot right now. Its CLEARLY some sort of message that the New World Order are sending for some reason. Its OBVIOUS. 9.7k hertz is the same frequency used by their scanning devices. Don't believe me?
OK, how about the fact that worldwide computer sales rose this quarter by 9.7% Explain THAT one.
French unemployment hit 9.7 million this month. Its all true. Coincidence on this scale is statistically almost impossible.
You simple fools. Stop wasting your time reading this, and buy some more tin foil.

It won't do you any good don. The specification for a tin foil hat calls for a 9.7" x 9.7" square of foil. Damned cunning these New World Order types, damned cunning.

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