The unmanned X-51A WaveRider sped westward for four minutes, reaching Mach 5.1, or more than five times the speed of sound, before plunging into the ocean as planned. It flew for longer than any ...

The X-51A project is managed by the Air Force Research Laboratory, or AFRL, with funding from the Pentagon's mad science division, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA.

The U.S. military launched an experimental hypersonic aircraft on its swan song test flight Wednesday (May 1), accelerating the craft to more than five times the speed of sound in the longest-ever ...

Trouble with a control fin on the sleek, scramjet-powered aircraft puts an abrupt and early end to the Air Force's attempt at a Mach 6 flight. Jon Skillings is an editorial director at CNET, where ...

The final flight of the U.S. Air Force's X-51A Waverider program wasn't a long one, but it was long enough. The Air Force cheerfully announced Friday that the scramjet-powered X-51A flew for more ...

The Air Force and DARPA have been partnering on the X-51A unmanned scramjet project, the most advanced hypersonic aircraft yet built. But multiple tests have so far ended in abrupt failure.

The unmanned X-51A WaveRider sped westward for four minutes, reaching Mach 5.1, or more than five times the speed of sound, before plunging into the ocean as planned. It flew for longer than any ...

The air-breathing engine that powered the X-51A WaveRider could be key not just to travelling coast to coast in under 40 minutes but to making the sort of deep-space exploration seen in "Star Trek ...

In its fourth and final test, the X-51A WaveRider pulled off three and a half minutes of flight under the power of its supersonic combustion ramjet (Scramjet), the longest such flight ever.

The United States Air Force has a serious need for speed. On May first their X-51A Waverider zoomed to an amazing Mach 5.1 – more than five times the speed of sound. While there was no pilot behind ...

X-51a Waverider on wing of a B-52 (Inage: U.S. Air Force) According to Brink, the third test went as planned with the X-51a “stack” dropping from the B-52 and the booster igniting on schedule.

The X-51A then accelerated to a speed just over Mach 5 powered by a solid rocket booster, but the vehicle experienced an inlet un-start when the aircraft's air breathing scramjet engine lit on ...