Misplaced Pages

#733266

40-602: A winged booster rocket with the X-43 placed on top, called a "stack", was drop launched from a Boeing B-52 Stratofortress . After the booster rocket (a modified first stage of the Pegasus rocket ) brought the stack to the target speed and altitude, it was discarded, and the X-43 flew free using its own engine, a scramjet . The first plane in the series, the X-43A, was a single-use vehicle, of which three were built. The first X-43A

80-420: A ballistic missile , the payload is one or more warheads and related systems; their total weight is referred to as the throw-weight . The fraction of payload to the total liftoff weight of the air or spacecraft is known as the " payload fraction ". When the weight of the payload and fuel are considered together, it is known as the " useful load fraction ". In spacecraft, "mass fraction" is normally used, which

120-410: A single-stage-to-orbit design), and are especially important for a space vehicle to go beyond Earth orbit. The booster is dropped to fall back to Earth once its fuel is expended, a point known as booster engine cut-off (BECO). Following booster separation , the rest of the launch vehicle continues flight with its core or upper-stage engines. The booster may be recovered, refurbished and reused, as

160-672: A NASA Aeronautics and Space Technology Enterprise program conducted jointly by the Langley Research Center , Hampton, Virginia , and the Dryden Flight Research Center , Edwards, California . Langley was the lead center and responsible for hypersonic technology development. Dryden was responsible for flight research. Phase I was a seven-year, approximately $ 230,000,000 program to flight-validate scramjet propulsion, hypersonic aerodynamics and design methods. Subsequent phases were not continued, as

200-506: A chemical reactor by breaking long-chain hydrocarbons into short-chain hydrocarbons for a rapid burn. The X-43C was indefinitely suspended in March 2004. The linked story reports the project's indefinite suspension and the appearance of Rear Admiral Craig E. Steidle before a House Space and Aeronautics subcommittee hearing on March 18, 2004. In mid-2005, the X-43C appeared to be funded through

240-673: A second time by late 2020, with several having been flown a third time as well. In late 2020, Rocket Lab guided the booster of their Electron rocket for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean with a parafoil after launching the Return to Sender mission , as part of a program to catch the booster with a helicopter and reuse it on later missions. Rocket boosters used on aircraft are known as jet-assisted take-off (JATO) rockets. Various missiles also use solid rocket boosters. Examples are: Payload (air and space craft) Payload

280-431: Is also considered part of the payload. In a commercial context (i.e., an airline or air freight carrier ), payload may refer only to revenue-generating cargo or paying passengers. A payload of ordnance carried by a combat aircraft is sometimes alternatively referred to as the aircraft's warload . For a rocket, the payload can be a satellite , space probe , or spacecraft carrying humans, animals, or cargo. For

320-482: Is difficult, if not impossible, to gather on the ground." Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era Booster rocket A booster is a rocket (or rocket engine ) used either in the first stage of a multistage launch vehicle or in parallel with longer-burning sustainer rockets to augment the space vehicle 's takeoff thrust and payload capability. Boosters are traditionally necessary to launch spacecraft into low Earth orbit (absent

360-409: Is the difference between maximum zero-fuel weight and operational empty weight (OEW). Moving left-to-right along the line shows the constant maximum payload as the range increases. More fuel needs to be added for more range. The vertical line represents the range at which the combined weight of the aircraft, maximum payload and needed fuel reaches the maximum take-off weight (MTOW) of the aircraft. If

400-448: Is the object or the entity which is being carried by an aircraft or launch vehicle . Sometimes payload also refers to the carrying capacity of an aircraft or launch vehicle, usually measured in terms of weight. Depending on the nature of the flight or mission, the payload of a vehicle may include cargo , passengers , flight crew , munitions , scientific instruments or experiments, or other equipment. Extra fuel, when optionally carried,

440-399: Is the ratio of payload to everything else, including the rocket structure. There is a natural trade-off between the payload and the range of an aircraft. A payload range diagram (also known as the "elbow chart") illustrates the trade-off. The top horizontal line represents the maximum payload. It is limited structurally by maximum zero-fuel weight (MZFW) of the aircraft. Maximum payload

SECTION 10

#1732798144734

480-701: The National Aerospace Plane (NASP) program in November 1994, the United States lacked a cohesive hypersonic technology development program. As one of the "better, faster, cheaper" programs developed by NASA in the late 1990s, the Hyper-X used technology and research from the NASP program which advanced it toward the demonstration of hypersonic air breathing propulsion, The Hyper-X Phase I was

520-456: The bending moment of the wing as does weight in the fuselage. So even when the airplane has been loaded with its maximum payload that the wings can support, it can still carry a significant amount of fuel. Launch and transport system differ not only on the payload that can be carried but also in the stresses and other factors placed on the payload. The payload must not only be lifted to its target, it must also arrive safely, whether elsewhere on

560-455: The American space agency and contractors such as Boeing , Micro Craft Inc, Orbital Sciences Corporation and General Applied Science Laboratory (GASL). Micro Craft Inc. built the X-43A and GASL built its engine. One of the primary goals of NASA's Aeronautics Enterprise was the development and demonstration of technologies for air-breathing hypersonic flight. Following the cancellation of

600-684: The USAF announced the Force Application and Launch from Continental United States or FALCON scramjet reusable missile. In March 2006, it was announced that the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) supersonic combustion ramjet "WaveRider" flight test vehicle had been designated as X-51A. The USAF Boeing X-51 was first flown on May 26, 2010, dropped from a B-52. After the X-43 tests in 2004, NASA Dryden engineers said that they expected all of their efforts to culminate in

640-452: The X-43 series of aircraft was replaced in 2006 by the X-51 . The X-43A aircraft was a small unpiloted test vehicle measuring just over 3.7 m (12 ft) in length . The vehicle was a lifting body design, where the body of the aircraft provides a significant amount of lift for flight, rather than relying on wings . The aircraft weighed roughly 1,400 kg (3,000 lb). The X-43A

680-474: The X-43A and was expected to test the viability of hydrocarbon fuel, possibly with the HyTech engine. While most scramjet designs have used hydrogen for fuel, HyTech runs with conventional kerosene-type hydrocarbon fuels, which are more practical for support of operational vehicles. The building of a full-scale engine was planned which would use its own fuel for cooling. The engine cooling system would have acted as

720-459: The accident. Several inaccuracies in data modeling for this test led to an inadequate control system for the particular Pegasus rocket used, though no single factor could ultimately be blamed for the failure. In the second test in March 2004, the Pegasus fired successfully and released the test vehicle at an altitude of about 29,000 metres (95,000 ft). After separation, the engine's air intake

760-499: The aircraft were expected to be moderately to significantly larger in size. The X-43B, was a full-size vehicle, incorporating a turbine-based combined cycle (TBCC) engine or a rocket-based combined cycle (RBCC) ISTAR engine. Jet turbines or rockets would initially propel the vehicle to supersonic speed. A ramjet might take over starting at Mach 2.5, with the engine converting to a scramjet configuration at approximately Mach 5. The X-43C would have been somewhat larger than

800-414: The aircraft's airframe to be part of the propulsion system: the forebody is a part of the intake airflow, while the aft section functions as an exhaust nozzle. The engine of the X-43A was primarily fueled with hydrogen fuel . In the successful test, about one kilogram (two pounds) of the fuel was used. Unlike rockets, scramjet-powered vehicles do not carry oxygen on board for fueling the engine. Removing

840-454: The airframe could melt. The X-43A compensated for this by cycling water behind the engine cowl and sidewall leading edges, cooling those surfaces. In tests, the water circulation was activated at about Mach 3. The craft was created to develop and test a supersonic-combustion ramjet, or " scramjet " engine, an engine variation where external combustion takes place within air that is flowing at supersonic speeds. The X-43A's developers designed

SECTION 20

#1732798144734

880-407: The case of the X-43A, the aircraft was accelerated to high speed with a Pegasus rocket launched from a converted Boeing B-52 Stratofortress bomber. The combined X-43A and Pegasus vehicle was referred to as the "stack" by the program's team members. The engines in the X-43A test vehicles were specifically designed for a certain speed range, only able to compress and ignite the fuel-air mixture when

920-442: The curve represents the point at which the maximum fuel capacity is reached. Flying further than that point means that the payload has to be reduced further, for an even lesser increase in range. The absolute range is thus the range at which an aircraft can fly with maximum possible fuel without carrying any payload. Examples of payload capacity: For aircraft, the weight of fuel in wing tanks does not contribute as significantly to

960-493: The end of the year. The X-43D would have been almost identical to the X-43A, but expanded the speed envelope to Mach 15. As of September 2007, only a feasibility study had been conducted by Donald B. Johnson of Boeing and Jeffrey S. Robinson of NASA's Langley Research Center . According to the introduction of the study, "The purpose of the X-43D is to gather high Mach flight environment and engine operability information which

1000-409: The engine was started at Mach 9.65 for 10–12 seconds with thrust approximately equal to drag, and then glided to the Pacific Ocean after 14 minutes. Dynamic pressure during the flight was 1,050 psf (0.50 bar). It reached Mach 9.68, 6,755 mph (10,870 km/h) at 109,440 ft (33,357 m), and further tested the ability of the vehicle to withstand the heat loads involved. In January 2006

1040-411: The incoming airflow is moving as expected. The first two X-43A aircraft were intended for flight at approximately Mach 7, while the third was designed to operate at speeds greater than Mach 9.8 (10,700 km/h; 6,620 mph) at altitudes of 30,000 m (98,000 ft) or more. NASA's first X-43A test on June 2, 2001 failed because the Pegasus booster lost control about 13 seconds after it

1080-679: The launch vehicle. Most aircraft payloads are carried within the fuselage for similar reasons. Outsize cargo may require a fuselage with unusual proportions, such as the Super Guppy . The various constraints placed on the launch system can be roughly categorized into those that cause physical damage to the payload and those that can damage its electronic or chemical makeup. Examples of physical damage include extreme accelerations over short time scales caused by atmospheric buffeting or oscillations, extreme accelerations over longer time scales caused by rocket thrust and gravity, and sudden changes in

1120-409: The need to carry oxygen significantly reduces the vehicle's size and weight. In the future, such lighter vehicles could take heavier payloads into space or carry payloads of the same weight much more efficiently. Scramjets only operate at speeds in the range of Mach 4.5 or higher, so rockets or other jet engines are required to initially boost scramjet-powered aircraft to this base velocity. In

1160-413: The production of a two-stage-to-orbit crewed vehicle in about 20 years. The scientists expressed much doubt that there would be a single-stage-to-orbit crewed vehicle like the National Aerospace Plane (NASP) in the foreseeable future. Other X-43 vehicles were planned, but as of June 2013 they have been suspended or canceled. They were expected to have the same basic body design as the X-43A, though

1200-416: The range is increased beyond that point, payload has to be sacrificed for fuel. The maximum take-off weight is limited by a combination of the maximum net power of the engines and the lift/drag ratio of the wings. The diagonal line after the range-at-maximum-payload point shows how reducing the payload allows increasing the fuel (and range) when taking off with the maximum take-off weight. The second kink in

1240-535: The second stage and the payload, the booster returns to launch site or flies to a drone ship and lands vertically . After landing multiple boosters both on land and on drone ships in 2015–2016, a landed stage was first reflown in March 2017: Rocket core B1021 that had been used to launch a re-supply mission to the ISS when new in April 2016 was subsequently used to launch the satellite SES-10 in March 2017. The program

NASA X-43 - Misplaced Pages Continue

1280-457: The surface of the Earth or a specific orbit. To ensure this the payload, such as a warhead or satellite, is designed to withstand certain amounts of various types of "punishment" on the way to its destination. Most rocket payloads are fitted within a payload fairing to protect them against dynamic pressure of high-velocity travel through the atmosphere, and to improve the overall aerodynamics of

1320-469: The vehicle and manipulate the flight controls for several minutes; the aircraft, slowed by air resistance, fell into the ocean. With this flight the X-43A became the fastest free-flying air-breathing aircraft in the world. NASA flew a third version of the X-43A on November 16, 2004. The Pegasus rocket booster separated from its B-52 carrier at 40,000 feet and its solid rocket took the combination to Mach 10 at 110,000 feet. The X-43A split away at Mach 9.8 and

1360-506: Was designed to be fully controllable in high-speed flight, even when gliding without propulsion . However, the aircraft was not designed to land and be recovered. Test vehicles crashed into the Pacific Ocean when the test was over. Traveling at Mach speeds produces significant heat due to the compression shock waves involved in supersonic aerodynamic drag . At high Mach speeds, heat can become so intense that metal portions of

1400-487: Was destroyed after malfunctioning in flight in 2001. Each of the other two flew successfully in 2004, setting speed records, with the scramjets operating for approximately 10 seconds followed by 10-minute glides and intentional crashes into the ocean. Plans for more planes in the X-43 series have been suspended or cancelled, and replaced by the USAF managed X-51 program. The X-43 was a part of NASA's Hyper-X program, involving

1440-548: Was intended to reduce launch prices significantly, and by 2018, SpaceX had reduced launch prices on a flight-proven boosters to US$ 50 million , the lowest price in the industry for medium-lift launch services. By August 2019, the recovery and reuse of Falcon 9 boosters had become routine, with booster landings/recovery being attempted on more than 90 percent of all SpaceX flights, and successful landings and recoveries occurring 65 times out of 75 attempts. In total 25 recovered boosters have been refurbished and subsequently flown

1480-482: Was opened, the engine ignited, and the aircraft then accelerated away from the rocket reaching Mach 6.83 (7,456 km/h; 4,633 mph). Fuel was flowing to the engine for 11 seconds, a time in which the aircraft traveled more than 24 km (15 mi). Following Pegasus booster separation, the vehicle experienced a small drop in speed but the scramjet engine afterward accelerated the vehicle in climbing flight. After burnout, controllers were still able to maneuver

1520-500: Was released from the B-52 carrier. The rocket experienced a control oscillation as it went transonic , eventually leading to the failure of the rocket's starboard elevon . This caused the rocket to deviate significantly from the planned course, and it was destroyed as a safety precaution. An investigation into the incident stated that imprecise information about the capabilities of the rocket as well as its flight environment contributed to

1560-720: Was the case of the steel casings used for the Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Boosters . The SM-65 Atlas rocket used three engines, one of which was fixed to the fuel tank, and two of which were mounted on a skirt which dropped away at BECO. This was used as an Intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM); to launch the crewed Project Mercury capsule into orbit; and as the first stage of the Atlas-Agena and Atlas-Centaur launch vehicles. Several launch vehicles, including GSLV Mark III and Titan IV , employ strap-on boosters. NASA 's Space Shuttle

1600-612: Was the first crewed vehicle to use strap-on boosters. Launch vehicles like Delta IV Heavy and Falcon Heavy employ strap-on liquid rocket boosters . The booster casings for the Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Boosters were recovered and refurbished for reuse from 1981 to 2011 as part of the Space Shuttle program . In a new development program initiated in 2011, SpaceX developed reusable first stages of their Falcon 9 rocket . After launching

#733266