Mach 3 SR-71 Blackbird Was Slow Compared to This: NASA Had a Mach 9.6 X-43A Hypersonic Gas Hydrogen-fed Scramjet That Was Canceled

Mach 3 SR-71 Blackbird Was Slow Compared to This: NASA Had a Mach 9.6 X-43A Hypersonic Gas Hydrogen-fed Scramjet That Was Canceled

Summary and Key Points: Expert Sean Spoonts revisits NASA’s Hyper-X program, an eight-year, $230 million program run by Langley and Dryden that produced the 12-foot X-43A, a hydrogen-fed scramjet lifting body built by MicroCraft, Boeing Phantom Works, and Orbital Sciences. After the 2001 failure, it hit Mach 6.83 in March 2004 and Mach 9.68 (6,755 mph) that November, the fastest air-breathing aircraft ever, proving heat protection and control th…