Whoops!
The scramjet fails to scram
NASA, America's National Aeronautics and Space Administration, suffered a setback to the aeronautics side of its remit on June 4th. It planned to test the X-43A, a prototype aircraft powered by a supersonic-combustion ramjet, or “scramjet” (see article). The X-43A was designed to travel at seven times the speed of sound. Unfortunately, the scramjet was never even ignited. Its booster rocket went haywire and its controllers blew the whole thing up. Better luck next time.
This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “Whoops!”
From the June 9th 2001 edition
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