Strange days.

[absom4]

Well, if we had actually been on Babylon 5, we would have become used to those cramped quarters.

[jasoom]

<center>NASA Unveils Futuristic Aircraft</center>



EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AP) - NASA (news - web sites) has unveiled a futuristic aircraft designed to accelerate through the atmosphere at speeds up to 7,200 mph, making it the world's fastest plane.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's first un-piloted X-43A will make its maiden flight in mid-May, flying under its own power for just 10 seconds and about 17 miles before crashing into the Pacific Ocean.

After the initial flight, two more of the 12-foot-long, surfboard-shaped planes will fly at six-month intervals. If successful, the planes will smash the speed record of Mach 6.7, set by an X-15 in October 1967.

Unlike the rocket-powered X-15, the X-43A has an air-breathing engine. It carries hydrogen for fuel, but must scoop oxygen out of the atmosphere to combust it. Conventional rockets carry both fuel and an oxidant.

Backers of the technology say air-breathing hypersonic propulsion could help space travel. Eliminating the need to carry oxygen could cut the weight of a space-faring version of such a plane in half.

The X-43A has a specialized supersonic-combustion ramjet, or ``scramjet,'' engine.


[This message has been edited by jasoom (edited April 21, 2001).]

[This message has been edited by jasoom (edited April 21, 2001).]

[This message has been edited by jasoom (edited April 21, 2001).]