This program has repeatedly run into problems, losing several vehicles for various reasons, but it looks like they have now broken the code. Those of you who have watched the hypersonic realm carefully may be unimpressed. NASA took the scramjet-powered X-43 out to Mach 9.6 several years ago, so it is tempting to yawn at barely breaking through Mach 5. But keep in mind that the objectives of the two vehicles are much different. The X-43 was fairly large, while AFRL is trying to make hypersonics happen in a small-enough package to have some military value. It looks as though they may be on the right track.
http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-hypersonic-x51-test-flight-20130503,0,6645524.story
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