X-51A Takes First Ride Aboard B-52

Flight is Key Milestone For Hypersonic Vehicle

The X-51A WaveRider was carried aloft for the first time Dec. 9 by an Air Force Flight Test Center B-52 Stratofortress over Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.  The test was a key milestone in the X-51 test program.  In 2010, USAF officials plan to light its supersonic combustion ramjet engine and propel the aircraft at hypersonic speed for about five minutes before plunging it into the Pacific Ocean.

"This was a great day for the program," said Charlie Brink, X-51A program manager with the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. "The early look is we successfully captured all of our test points without any anomalies. I'm really proud of the AFRL, Air Force Flight Test Center, and Boeing/Pratt Whitney Rocketdyne teams' efforts to move us toward the big event. That flight test is currently planned in about two months, he said.

The Dec. 9 test, reminiscent of the early days of the historic X-15 program 50 years earlier, was conducted entirely in the airspace over Edwards AFB while various systems and telemetry were checked out. The Flight duration was 1.4 hours.

"After takeoff we climbed to 50,000 feet and verified B-52 aircraft performance, handling qualities with the X-51A attached to the B-52, control room displays and software integration with the X-51A," said Lt. Col. Daniel Millman, a B-52 project pilot. "The B-52 handled great and the flight preceded as planned."

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