Article Posted on : - Aug 14, 2012

X-51A, artist's concept. Photo: NASA.

LONDON (PTI): US military is ready to test a radical new hypersonic aircraft that can reach a speed of 4,500 mph within seconds.

The aircraft, called the X-51A 'WaveRider', is currently being prepared at Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert.

It uses a revolutionary 'scramjet' engine that allows it to travel at hypersonic speeds and it will be dropped from a B-52 bomber in its latest test on Tuesday, the 'Daily Mail' reported.

Attached to a B-52 bomber's wing, it will be taken from Edwards to about 50,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean near Point Mugu. Hypersonic flight is seen as the next step for aircraft. The WaveRider programme is estimated to cost $140 million, according to Globalsecurity.org, a website for military policy research.

It has had a mixed history, with previous tests being aborted after the engine stalled.

The latest test will see the craft freefall for four seconds over the Pacific before its booster rocket engine ignites and propels the nearly wingless aircraft for 300 seconds before being jettisoned.

Then the cruiser's scramjet engine, notable because it has virtually no moving parts, ignites.

The WaveRider is expected to accelerate to about Mach 6 as it climbs to nearly 70,000 feet, the Los Angeles Times reported. After 300 seconds of flight, the WaveRider is set to break up after splashing into the Pacific, as planned.

There are no plans to recover the WaveRider.

The cruiser is designed to ride its own shock wave. That's how the X-51 earned the WaveRider nickname. "The X-51 is a technology feeder to larger, more sustained flight times," said Darryl W. Davis, president of Boeing Phantom Works, which built the cruiser. "The hope is to advance state of the art."