This rare footage shows NASA testing the X-43A, an experimental hypersonic aircraft built to explore extreme-speed flight. Because scramjet engines cannot start from rest, the vehicle was carried under a B-52, boosted to hypersonic speed by a rocket, and only then ignited its own engine. | SpaceEve

It's the 20th anniversary of the X-43A record speed flight! ⭐ NASA’s X-43A experimental aircraft set the world speed record for a jet-powered aircraft 20 years ago on Nov. 16, 2004. The flight originated from NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. The B-52B carried a Pegasus rocket under its wing, and the X-43A was attached to the rocket’s nose. Once in position over the Pacific Ocean, the rocket air-launched and its engine fired, and once in position, the X-43A’s engine

The X-43A was a small, unmanned test aircraft built by NASA with one goal: to achieve incredible speed. Part of the Hyper-X program, it aimed to prove that a scramjet could operate in real flight, not just inside a wind tunnel. Rather than launching from a runway, the X-43A was carried to high altitude by a B-52, then boosted by a Pegasus rocket to several thousand miles per hour. Only after the booster separated did its scramjet engine ignite. Unlike conventional rockets, the scramjet didn’t ca

Welcome to Warbird Wednesday! Today we’re paying a special visit to the Hypersonic X-43A, also known as the Hyper-X. The concepts of Mach 10 travel played a major role in "Top Gun: Maverick." The X-43A was an experimental unmanned hypersonic aircraft, which would be drop-launched from a Boeing B-52 Stratofortress and would fly free using its own engine, a scramjet. The X-43A is the fastest jet-powered aircraft, reaching a record speed of Mach 9.6. These are single-use aircrafts with only three e