Edwards receives latest expermental aircraft

The first X-51A Scramjet Engine Demonstrator WaveRider vehicle arrived at Edwards Integrated Maintenance Facility, Building 710 June 25. The aircraft will begin ground tests July 6. Assembly was completed last month at Boeing's High Desert Assembly, Integration and Test facility at Plant 42 in Palmdale, Calif. This aircraft is the first of four Static Test Vehicles, which will be used for familiarization training and an Upload and Download Test. The X-51A SED program is intended to demonstrate air breathing hypersonic propulsion using a Pratt & Whitney Rocket dyne scramjet. The 25-foot long, 4,000 pound vehicle will be carried aloft on a B-52H Stratofortress and released in the Point Mugu Sea Range. A solid rocket booster will propel it to nearly Mach 5, where the scramjet will take over and continue to propel the X-51A for another 4 minutes to nearly Mach 6. The X-51A Program Office at the Air Force Research Laboratory, Propulsion Directorate, Wright-Patterson AFB designated the Hypersonic Combined Task Force at the AFRL site at Edwards. Following the Upload and Download Test, ground tests will continue through the summer and the X-51A is scheduled to perform additional testing through winter 2010. (Air Force photo/Mike Cassidy)