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The huge loss of life prompted the Queen to send a message of condolence to the victims' families. Onboard observer Anthony Richards and 28 spectators were also killed, with a further 60 people injured. And, instead of blacking out, Derry said he 'suffered no discomfort', bar a 'strange feeling in my tummy'.īut tragically, the pilot was killed in a horrendous crash four years later at the famous Farnborough Air Show in Hampshire, when the experimental plane he was flying – a de Havilland 110 jet fighter – broke apart. The 'bat man' pilot reached the extreme speed by deliberately putting the plane into a steep 60-second dive which saw him plummet 10,000 feet. Speaking to the Daily Mail afterwards, the test pilot – who had won the Distinguished Flying Cross for his war service - said that 'it just happened, as these things do in routine research flying'. It was the same type of plane in which fellow test pilot Geoffrey de Havilland – the son of the famous aviation pioneer – lost his life two years earlier.īut the news was quickly followed by Derry's admission that the feat was accidental. World War Two veteran John Derry, who was then aged just 26, had broken through the sound barrier on September 6, seven miles above the Home Counties in a bat-shaped de Havilland 108 'Swallow'. On this day in 1948, news emerged of how an ex- RAF fighter pilot made history by becoming the first British man to fly faster than the speed of sound – before he revealed that he had done so by mistake. The next developmental flight of this system is scheduled for no earlier than February 21, 2004.On this day in 1948, ex-RAF fighter pilot John Derry made history by becoming the first British man to fly faster than the speed of sound – before revealing that he had done so by mistake and Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, Calif. The Hyper-X program is a joint project between the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va. The vehicle will be tested at speeds up to Mach 10. The first test flight of the X-43A, which took place on June 2, 2001, failed due to a stabilization problem with the booster rocket's directional fins.Īn artist's conception of the X-43A in flight.
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The Pegasus is dropped by a B-52 aircraft and launched to an altitude of over 90,000 feet, where the X-43A is released and flown under its own power.Įach of the three vehicles appear identical but have slightly different oxygen intake designs, based on what speed their test flights are planned to accomplish. The company fabricated three X-43A aircraft for NASA, to be flown aboard modified Pegasus rockets developed by the Orbital Sciences Corporation. The X-43A, a 12-foot long scramjet-powered research vehicle, was constructed by MicroCraft, Inc., now known as Alliant Techsystems, Inc. NASA's Hyper-X program is working to develop scramjets into a practical technology. On August 16, 2002, the University of Queensland in Australia completed the first successful flight of a scramjet vehicle, reaching speeds of Mach 7, or seven times the speed of sound. An 18-hour trip to Tokyo from New York City becomes a 2-hour flight.Ī look at one of NASA's developmental scramjets, the X-43A, undergoing ground testing. How fast? Researchers predict scramjet speeds could reach 15 times the speed of sound. The craft becomes smaller, lighter and faster. That's the idea behind a different propulsion system called "scramjet," or Supersonic Combustion Ramjet: The oxygen needed by the engine to combust is taken from the atmosphere passing through the vehicle, instead of from a tank onboard. Take away the need for liquid oxygen and your spacecraft can be smaller or carry more payload. Why? Rockets combine a liquid fuel with liquid oxygen to create thrust. One thing has always been true about rockets: The farther and faster you want to go, the bigger your rocket needs to be.