The Boeing X-51A Waverider became the first vehicle to sustain scramjet-powered flight at Mach 5, producing data that now underpins every serious hypersonic program worldwide.
VectorThe North American X-15 flew 199 missions to the edge of space, generating engineering data that still shapes modern aircraft and commercial spaceflight regulation.
VectorThe North American X-15 flew 199 times between 1959 and 1968, with 13 flights crossing the 50-mile threshold that made Air Force pilots astronauts and built the technical foundation still used in crewed spacecraft today.
VectorStratolaunch has acquired a Boeing 777-200ER to expand its hypersonic air-launch test fleet alongside the Roc, signaling serious program growth.
TowerThe North American X-15 flew 199 research missions from 1959 to 1968, setting records that still stand and building the engineering foundation for every U.S. crewed spacecraft that followed.
VectorThe North American X-15 set speed and altitude records that still stand today while generating the hypersonic research data that made Apollo and the Space Shuttle possible.
VectorThe Stratolaunch Roc - with its 385-foot wingspan - is now actively flying hypersonic research missions, recovering test vehicles intact for the first time in decades.
VectorHermeus is developing a Mach 5 aircraft to carry passengers from New York to London in 90 minutes - here's whether the engineering backs the claim.
VectorThe North American X-15 flew 199 missions to the edge of space, set speed and altitude records that still stand, and shaped every hypersonic and space vehicle that followed.
VectorThe Pentagon's Defense Innovation Unit has contracted GE Aerospace to develop Derecho, an air-launched hypersonic test vehicle designed to reach Mach 5.
TowerEight military pilots flew the X-15 above 50 miles in the 1960s, earning astronaut wings and defining the altitude threshold still encoded in U.S. commercial space law today.
VectorPete Knight flew the X-15 to Mach 6.7 on October 3, 1967 - a speed no winged aircraft has matched in nearly 59 years, and a record built on engineering that still shapes aerospace today.
VectorThe North American X-15 holds the all-time speed record for a winged aircraft and sent eight pilots to space - records that have stood for nearly sixty years.
VectorHow Stratolaunch turned Roc, the widest airplane ever built, into a reusable hypersonic test platform flying Talon A vehicles past Mach 5.
VectorInside Stratolaunch's Roc, the widest airplane ever built, and how it became a reusable runway in the sky for hypersonic flight testing.
VectorStratolaunch's Roc, the largest-wingspan aircraft ever flown, now drops reusable Talon-A vehicles into hypersonic flight for U.S. defense testing.
VectorHow the Stratolaunch Roc, the widest airplane ever built, became a reusable runway in the sky for hypersonic test flights.
VectorStratolaunch's Roc, the widest airplane ever built at 385 feet, now air-launches the Talon-A hypersonic vehicle past Mach 5.
VectorRadio Hangar explores Hermeus and the Chimera Engine, the Turbojet That Turns Into a Ramjet in Flight, and the Long Road From Mach Five on a Test Stand to a Passenger Someday.
VectorRadio Hangar explores Stratolaunch's Roc and the Talon-A, the Six-Engine Twin-Fuselage Giant That Air-Drops a Reusable Hypersonic Testbed Over the Pacific.
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