U.S. Air Force: New Jet can get from NYC to London in 1 hour

U.S. Air Force: New Jet can get from NYC to London in 1 hour...if it can stay in one piece

The jet you see in this picture is the U.S. Air Force's X-51A Waverider. It is a hypersonic jet that uses a "Scramjet" engine which funnels rapidly moving air into the engine where it is mixed with fuel to provide a thrust that can send the jet up to speeds of 3500mph. That means this jet can get from New York City to London, England in about an hour. You're probably wondering when will we be able to ride this jet because who wouldn't want to be able take a trip to London in the time it takes some people to get to work in rush hour traffic. Well the Air Force tested the jet on Wednesday for the second time this decade. It was tested a few years ago and only traveled for about a minutes and fell apart. Unfortunately the latest test was also a failure. The waverider was released from a B-51 bomber and just went out of control over the pacific ocean. The Air Force lost sight of it but they are pretty sure it's sitting somewhere in the Pacific ocean. It's back to the drawing board for Boeing who makes the jet and hopes it will pass the appropriate tests and be ready for a flight with passengers. Another downside to this jet is that even when it is perfectly ready for passengers it will be extremely expensive to ride. Only a few will exist because it is so expensive to make and operate. Remember the Concorde jets that could travel to destinations in half the time of regular passenger jets? Well those are now discontinued because not a lot of people could afford to ride them. Some day this X-51A Waverider will be ready for flight and affordable for most people. We might not be alive to see it but for the time being I'm perfectly satisfied with the passenger planes we have now.

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