The fastest plane in the world

NASA is secretly developing an ultra-high-speed aircraft X-43, but what does it look like? All along, the X-43 is a dragon. Recently, NASA finally unveiled the mystery of the X-43A ultra-high-speed aircraft: this aircraft does not need rocket power, but its maximum speed can reach 10 times the speed of sound. It is the fastest plane in the world today, and it only takes half an hour to fly from the east coast of the United States to the west coast! American scientists call it the most important breakthrough in aviation technology since the Wright brothers first flew. However, scientists in other countries believe that this kind of aircraft has little chance of civilian use, and the real purpose of the United States to develop it is to deter other countries and consolidate its hegemonic position. Other countries have to guard against it.

This is X-43A.

On April 18, the wind in the desert of California was very strong, but the bad weather did not stop reporters from going to Edward Air Force Base, because NASA announced that it would show its carefully designed ultra-high-speed aircraft X-43a model for the first time at this base. According to NASA scientists, this X-43A is the most important breakthrough in aviation technology since the Wright brothers first flew.

The model plane is parked on the asphalt runway at Edward base. When Joel Sizz, the executive director of NASA's X-43 project, pulled down the blue cloth covered on the X-43a, the reporters at the scene exclaimed: How beautiful! This small and exquisite plane looks like a surfboard.

Then, Siz introduced some information about the X-43A to reporters. The new X-43A aircraft announced by NASA is powered by ramjet engine. Its fuselage is 3.7 meters long and black. Its top speed will be Mach 7, which is close to 8,047 kilometers per hour, equivalent to 7 times the speed of sound. It takes only half an hour to fly from the east coast of the United States to the west coast, thus breaking the record of the fastest jet engine without rocket power.

In May this year, the X-43A ultra-high-speed aircraft will make its first unmanned long-range test flight from Edward Air Force Base in California. It will be carried to high altitude by the U.S. B-52 bomber, launched with a modified Tianma propeller, and then started the engine of the prototype to fly at a high speed of 7 times the speed of sound. The test will last for tens of seconds and eventually fall into the sea. If all goes well, in the next two years, the X-43 will conduct three different test flights to verify the performance of this so-called "hypersonic engine". Scientists from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration say that this kind of plane will be able to take off and land on its own in the future. Finally, the flight speed can be as high as Mach 10 (10 times the speed of sound), which opens a new page in the history of human aviation.

Mach is the unit of sound speed, which varies slightly according to the orbital height. Sea level 1 mach is equivalent to 1200 km per hour. 1967 10, a rocket-propelled X- 15 aircraft set a record of Mach 6.7.

According to NASA officials, the current project, which costs nearly 200 million dollars, is purely experimental, with the purpose of collecting flight data and preparing for designing a 200-foot-long real ultra-high-speed aircraft in the future. According to the plan, it will take another 25 years for the aircraft to be applied to space navigation.

Revolutionary technology

The unmanned X-43A is a part of NASA's "Hyp E R X" program and the first shot in the "Hypersonic" series. The so-called "h yp e rson ic" is to reach the speed of sound above 5 times (Mach 5). The biggest feature of X-43A is the use of "ramjet engine". Ramjet engine is basically an integral hollow tube, which carries hydrogen as fuel. Air flows into the front end of the engine and is compressed, and the oxygen in it is mixed with hydrogen fuel to produce a strong driving force, but only water is discharged, and there is no other polluted exhaust gas.

At present, the fastest turbojet engine using general air combustion in the world is the US Air Force SR-7 1 Blackbird reconnaissance plane with a speed of Mach 3. Scientists believe that the speed of aircraft equipped with ramjet engines is almost infinite, but they also admit that most devices of this technology will take years to realize.

For decades, the United States has been studying the use of rocket engines to propel hypersonic aircraft, but the X-43A has always been driven by a ir b rea th in g engine, not rocket engine, which can be said to overturn the previous research. The rocket engine will increase the weight of the fuselage because it has to carry oxygen to burn fuel, but the X-43A uses oxygen in the atmosphere to burn fuel, which can be said to be a great progress and the flight cost will be greatly reduced.

There is a big problem in hypersonic flight: the blades of ordinary engines will break. Therefore, the X-43A adopts a Supersonic Combuse Ramjet engine (abbreviated as Sc ram je t), which uses hydrogen as fuel, but has no blades or moving parts like a turbine engine. It relies on the speed generated before to push the air into the machine, and the air is compressed and burned to generate the driving force.

In order to ensure the airflow speed is fast enough during the test flight, NASA will use the B-52 bomber to carry the X-43a equipped with the Pegasus booster rocket to an altitude of 7,200 meters, and then release it. The booster rocket pushes the X-43a to Mach 7 and then falls off. X-43a ignited the engine, flew under its own power for 10 seconds, about 27 kilometers, and then fell into the Pacific Ocean. The impact of falling into the sea will destroy the design secrets of the X-43A. The aerodynamic data obtained from the test flight will be used for the next test flight and improved design.

Hide behind the scenes

1On March 24th, 997, NASA signed a contract with M ic roCra ft and Boeing to develop the X-43. The speed of the X-43a jointly developed by the three parties will be Mach 7 during the first and second test flights, and will be accelerated to Mach 10 for the third time. At present, it still needs to be carried into the air by a B-52 bomber and then launched by a rocket, but eventually it will be able to take off and land on its own.

If the commercial airliner can reach Mach 10 in the future, the flight time from new york to LA is only half an hour. However, NASA also intends to develop a faster hypersonic series, and it is expected that the Mach number of the X-43D model will reach 15. At this speed, it only takes 20 minutes to get from new york to LA and 2 hours to fly to Tokyo. Even space travel will become cheaper and easier.

However, some experts pointed out that hypersonic aircraft may not be suitable for commercial use, because high-speed flight will cause problems such as high temperature and extreme acceleration, which will make passengers feel uncomfortable. Although the application prospect of this super-high-speed aircraft is very broad in theory, scientists also admit that most of these applications still have a long way to go. It will take at least 25 years if this kind of aircraft is used in space. But the road to military application may not be that long, and it is not difficult to become an unmanned bomber. In fact, even Sizes admits that at present, the biggest use of this unmanned aircraft is in the military, because some problems have not been overcome. The US Army Flight and Missile Command Room has now used wind tunnels to test this aircraft to evaluate what kind of missiles it can assemble.

This extremely fast fighter flies so fast that no missile can shoot it down. In fact, the US government has recently formulated a new "National Hypersonic Strategy" and actively developed it jointly with industry. This strategic plan is coordinated by the US Armed Forces, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and aims to develop all engines, aircraft, weapons and launch systems that reach five times the speed of sound. For example, if there is a hypersonic missile, the U.S. military can use it to intercept the missile more confidently, and the hypersonic bomber can also ride into the enemy sky to perform the task at the maximum, making the enemy air defense system completely unable to intercept it. The Scientific Advisory Board of the US Air Force pointed out: "Hypersonic technology will transform the US Air Force into a real space force."

A tool to consolidate hegemony

The current efforts of the United States to develop drones are actually the second wave. During the Vietnam War, the US Air Force and the arms dealer Ryanair tested and launched a missile derived from a drone named Firebee. Firebee is the first generation of unmanned aerial vehicle, which is widely used in Vietnam War reconnaissance. Although the test results of bombing shooting are very promising, it is impossible to realize the idea of not losing our own pilots, because the fire bee was limited by the communication technology at that time and had to be given orders by the operator through radio within the visible range of the naked eye.

In the 1980s, Americans' interest in studying various unmanned aerial vehicles was rekindled. The technology of artificial satellite makes it possible to transmit commands over a long distance, and the progress of computer calculation makes UAV more widely used. Unmanned reconnaissance aircraft benefited first, and it has been proved that remote-controlled reconnaissance aircraft played a great role in the Persian Gulf War. Now, industries that produce all kinds of unmanned reconnaissance planes have mushroomed.

In fact, the U.S. Department of Defense has been experimenting with unmanned aerial vehicles for half a century, and only now has it really developed an unmanned combat aircraft with attack capability, which can be used as a vanguard to destroy enemy air defense systems without endangering American pilots. In the new U.S. military strategy proposed by the current Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, unmanned combat aircraft will be listed as a key development project.

The fuselage size and combat capability of unmanned combat aircraft are not much different from those of traditional fighters, but the cost is much cheaper, and it can be mobilized quickly and in large quantities to meet the needs of war. President Bush has focused on this type of fighter. This year, the US defense budget will allocate nearly US$ 654.38+US$ 500 million for research and development of this type of fighter. In March this year, a drone "Hunter" under development successfully launched a missile to destroy a tank, which was the first similar test conducted by the US military since the Vietnam War. In the near future, the United States will arrange "hunters" to bomb tanks in high airspace in a more realistic combat environment.

Many American arms dealers, such as Boeing and Lockheed, are actively developing unmanned aircraft. Boeing recently announced the design of its unmanned aircraft. This 27-foot fighter can be packed and stored in a box for 65,438+00 years. Once it needs to fight, it only takes 30 minutes to complete the "unpacking" expedition. Boeing has also developed microwave guns or laser guns for its unmanned combat aircraft to destroy enemy radar or missile launchers.

One of the important reasons why the US military is so interested in developing unmanned aircraft and even hypersonic bombers is that the technology of the US military's current ace aircraft, the stealth fighter, has been seen through. For example, the Czech Republic invented a radar that can detect B-2 stealth bombers and F- 1 17 stealth fighters. It is also reported that other countries have mastered the radar technology to crack stealth fighters. Therefore, future bombers are likely to rely on speed and higher altitude bombing to act.

At present, the US military mainly relies on three types of bombers for long-range attacks, including B-52, B- 1B and B-2 bombers. Their speed and maximum range are limited, so they need to be deployed overseas. However, at the speed of hypersonic bombers, the United States can bomb anywhere in the world within a few hours as long as it is deployed on the east and west sides, eliminating the emergency time and the diplomatic and expenditure problems brought by overseas garrison. It is expected that hypersonic bombers will be mainly responsible for carrying nuclear weapons to attack other countries to deter countries such as Iraq, India and Pakistan. Of course, China and Russia may also be targets. The United States tried to use this opportunity to consolidate its military hegemony.

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