You're invited Oct. 7 to the new Record building Open House. Click here to sign up. To subscribe, call 904.829.6586 Order Home Delivery Online Order or renew daily and Sunday home delivery of the Record for one year. NASA said the plane would be designed to fly at up to 10 times the speed of sound. Mach 1 is the speed of sound, which varies by altitude and is about 750 mph at sea level.
Conventional rockets carry both the hydrogen and oxidant.
Engineers will collect flight data needed to build future planes perhaps 200 feet in length. The first piloted prototypes may fly by 2025. Backers of the technology say air-breathing hypersonic propulsion could help space travel. None of the X-43As will be recovered from the ocean, officials said. Blackbird,'' which cruises slightly faster than Mach 3.