U.S. Air Force Sees Hypersonic Weapons and Spaceships in Future

A recent United States Air Force scramjet test has hinted at a future where hypersonic vehicles streak through the sky at many times the speed of sound around the world, and perhaps even open up access to space.

The experimental X-51A Waverider used a rocket booster and an air-breathing scramjet to reach a speed of Mach 5 and achieve the longest hypersonic flight ever powered by such an engine on May 26. That technology might not only deliver cargo quickly to different parts of the globe, but could also transform the space industry and spawn true space planes that take off and land from the same runway.

The wealth of possibilities offered by aerospace vehicles that can ride their own shockwaves likely explains why the project has drawn support from the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA), NASA, and the U.S. Navy.

Read more: http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/hypersonic-weapons-spaceships-future-100617.html

 

I wish this country would take the bold step to get technologies like this into our commercial aerospace industry that would revolutionize a key sector, but since our country is runned by lawyers and not technologists who understand the science we as a nation will lag behind other nations who will take the initiative to move ahead of us again.