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Hypersonic cruiser is one step closer

DARPA clears a key hurdle.

Mark Rutherford
The military establishment's ever increasing reliance on technology and whiz-bang gadgetry impacts us as consumers, investors, taxpayers and ultimately as the defended. Our mission here is to bring some of these products and concepts to your attention based on carefully selected criteria such as importance to national security, originality, collateral damage to the treasury and adaptability to yard maintenance-but not necessarily in that order. E-mail him at markr@milapp.com. Disclosure.
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Mark Rutherford
Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne

Oh ye of little faith, behold: Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne has successfully tested a sub-scale combustor for a dual-mode ramjet engine that could power the DARPA-financed Falcon HTV-3X hypersonic cruiser to Mach 6 and beyond. Dual-mode because the engine can function both at subsonic speeds and then kick up to supersonic scramjet speeds (greater than Mach 5).

By contrast, one of the fastest conventional Air Force jets--the SR-71 Blackbird--does a tortoise-paced Mach 3.4.

United Technologies

The engine technology was developed for Lockheed Martin's Falcon Combined-Cycle Engine Technology (FaCET) program. The goal is to develop hypersonic technologies that would enable "prompt global reach," which in this case means delivering 12 tons of payload up to 10,000 miles away in less than two hours.