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NASA’s first X-43A crashed into the Pacific in 2001 — the two that followed set hypersonic records no aircraft has beaten in 22 years

In the early 2000s, NASA was among the first to achieve sustained hypersonic flight. As part of the broader Hyper-X program, NASA developed the X-43, a small, unmanned research aircraft powered by an ...
SlashGear

NASA's Mach 9.6 X-43A 'Hypersonic Scramjet' Is Still An Engineering Marvel

Just a couple of decades ago, aviation had some rules. If you wanted to fly fast within the atmosphere, you used a jet engine. The champion here was the SR-71 Blackbird, designed by Lockheed Martin, ...
Aviation Week

Booster Problem Forces X-43A Mission Slip

NASA has slipped the next test of the X-43A hypersonic testbed until late January 2004, because of an intermittent failure in an actuator associated with its air-launched Pegasus booster. NASA's B-52 ...
Flightglobal

NASA schedules hypersonic test

NASA has scheduled the third and final flight of the X-43A hypersonic research vehicle for no earlier than 8 November. The unmanned, expendable vehicle will be dropped from NASA’s Boeing B-52 over the ...