What happened to the XS 1?
The phase 2/3 contract included $146 million in DARPA funding and an unspecified contribution by the company. On 22 January 2020, DARPA announced that Boeing was pulling out of the XS-1 program “immediately” and effectively ending the program.
Are space planes possible?
Many more spaceplanes have been proposed, but none have reached flight status. At least two suborbital rocket-powered aircraft have been launched horizontally into sub-orbital spaceflight from an airborne carrier aircraft before rocketing beyond the Kármán line: the X-15 and SpaceShipOne.
What was the name of the first plane to break the sound barrier?
Bell X-1 rocket plane
Yeager became the first person to break the sound barrier (opens in new tab) on Oct. 14, 1947, while flying the Bell X-1 rocket plane 45,000 feet (13,700 meters) over the Rogers Dry Lake in the Mojave Desert.
Why can’t fighter jets fly into space?
That’s because conventional planes need air for both propulsion and lift, and space is essentially a vacuum. The first plane to reach space was the X-15, designed in the mid-1950s for the US National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), forerunner of NASA.
What will replace the space shuttle?
Orion
What is Orion? Orion is NASA’s new spacecraft, built to take humans farther into space than they’ve ever gone before. It will carry the crew to space, provide emergency abort capability, sustain the crew and provide a safe return to Earth.
Who is the greatest pilot of all time?
Erich Hartmann is the most successful fighter pilot of all times – with 352 kills. A number that will never be surpassed. His nickname „Bubi“ means „little boy“ – and it’s easy to find out why he was called like that.
Who broke Mach 4?
| Chuck Yeager | |
|---|---|
| Brigadier General Chuck Yeager | |
| Birth name | Charles Elwood Yeager |
| Born | February 13, 1923 Myra, West Virginia, U.S. |
| Died | December 7, 2020 (aged 97) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
Why can’t planes fly over the Pacific Ocean?
Weather Patterns
Most flights are planned to minimize the time spent over bodies of water, since storms are more likely to occur over water than land. The weather over the Pacific Ocean is often turbulent, and there are many thunderstorms in parts of the Pacific, so it’s not a safe environment to fly a plane.
How cold is space?
Space is very, very cold. The baseline temperature of outer space is 2.7 kelvins (opens in new tab) — minus 454.81 degrees Fahrenheit, or minus 270.45 degrees Celsius — meaning it is barely above absolute zero, the point at which molecular motion stops. But this temperature is not constant throughout the solar system.
Why did NASA stop exploring the Moon?
Apollo 17 became the last manned mission to the Moon, for an indefinite amount of time. The main reason for this was money. The cost of getting to the Moon was, ironically, astronomical.
Why does NASA not use shuttle anymore?
“The bottom line answer is that it was too expensive. Way too expensive,” former NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory system engineer Mark Adler wrote in 2015. “The shuttle never met its promise for low-cost access to space by virtue of the system’s reusability.”
Who kills the most air to air?
Erich Hartmann
Erich Hartmann, with 352 official kills the highest scoring fighter pilot of all time. Ilmari Juutilainen, a Finnish flying ace with Brewster BW-364 “Orange 4” on 26 June 1942 during the Continuation War.
What country has best fighter pilots?
Top 15 Military Branches with the Most Powerful Air Fleets (by TrueValue Rating) – WDMMA 2021:
- United States Air Force – 242.9.
- United States Navy – 142.4.
- Russian Air Force – 114.2.
- United States Army Aviation – 112.6.
- United States Marine Corps – 85.3.
- Indian Air Force – 69.4.
Who broke Mach 7?
scramjet
NASA’s scramjet hurtles to earth at Mach 7. An experimental aircraft smashed the speed record for a jet plane on Saturday, flying at seven times the speed of sound. NASA’s X-43A craft flew under its own power for ten seconds, reaching speeds of more than two kilometres per second.
Has any plane reached Mach 10?
MathWorks tools helped us design and implement control systems that kept the vehicle stable throughout the flight.” The X-43A on its record-setting flight. On November 16, 2004, NASA made history by launching the X-43A, the first-ever air-breathing hypersonic vehicle, into the atmosphere, achieving Mach 10 speed.
Why don’t planes fly east from Australia to America?
Most commercial airlines, that operate between East Asia and the Americas, do not fly over the Pacific Ocean because of cost and safety concerns, including turbulent weather, which can be dangerous to fly over.
Why can’t planes fly over Antarctica?
Antarctica has no flight paths due to weather conditions and no infrastructure to assist with landing anywhere on the continent.
Would a body decompose in space?
In space we can assume that there would be no external organisms such as insects and fungi to break down the body, but we still carry plenty of bacteria with us. Left unchecked, these would rapidly multiply and cause putrefaction of a corpse on board the shuttle or the ISS.
What does space smell like?
sweet-smelling welding fumes’, ‘burning metal’, ‘a distinct odour of ozone, an acrid smell’, ‘walnuts and brake pads’, ‘gunpowder’ and even ‘burnt almond cookie’. Some astronauts have likened the smells of space to walnuts.
Is the American flag still on the Moon?
Images taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) have shown that the American flags left on the Moon by Apollo astronauts are still standing– except for the Apollo 11 mission, which Buzz Aldrin reported as being knocked over by engine exhaust as Apollo 11 lifted off.
Why did NASA stop searching the ocean?
This is largely because the vast majority of oceans remain unexplored. Thanks to a combination of impossibly deep waters, immense pressure, and a lack of sunlight, over 80 percent of the total oceans on Earth are a total mystery.
Which president cut NASA funding?
The Obama administration cut NASA’s planetary-sciences budget by 20 percent in 2013, as part of a restructuring plan, contrary to the recommendations of the National Research Council.
How much do astronauts get paid?
The pay grades for civilian astronaut candidates are set by federal government pay scales and vary based on academic achievements and experience. According to NASA , civilian astronaut salaries range from $104,898 to $161,141 per year. Here are a few of the benefits offered to civilian astronauts: Health care.
Who is the best fighter pilot ever?
Erich „Bubi“ Hartmann
1. Erich „Bubi“ Hartmann. Erich Hartmann is the most successful fighter pilot of all times – with 352 kills.
Who are the best NATO pilots?
Greek pilots are frequently voted by their NATO counterparts as being the best in the world. It is recalled that Squadron Leader Anastasios Andronikakis was named NATO’s best pilot in 2021.