The X-51A Waverider was released from a B-52 Stratofortress off the southern California coast Wednesday morning, the Air Force reported on its website. Its scramjet engine accelerated the vehicle to Mach 6, and it flew autonomously for 200 seconds before losing acceleration. At that point the test was terminated.
The Air Force said the previous record for a hypersonic scramjet burn was 12 seconds.
Now that's the wild blue yonder. This is what the Air Force should be doing--not squabbling over Army UAVs.
This is the way to Aim High, Air Force.
