Aircraft

Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne's hydrocarbon-fuelled X-1 scramjet has been tested at Mach 5 in NASA Langley Research Center's high-temperature tunnel, ahead of flight tests in the Boeing X-51A hypersonic demonstrator in 2009. The first of two ground-test engines, designated SJX61-1, exceeded performance predictions, says PWR. The engine features flight hardware including full-authority digital control and closed-loop thermal management using JP-7 kerosene to cool the engine and fuel the combustor. X-51A is a US Air Force Research Laboratory/Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency programme to demonstrate scramjet technology for hypersonic weapons.