Overview
The X-51 WaveRider team is focused on developing a free-flying vehicle that will fly longer hypersonically than all of it predecessors combined. Hypersonic speeds are those in excess of Mach 5 (five times the speed of sound).
The X-51 program is a consortium between Boeing and Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne. The customers are the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, with support from NASA.
The Boeing X-51 team purposely developed the vehicle to package a specific engine type into a soon-to-be-demonstrated platform. When this jet-fueled, air breathing hypersonic vehicle flies in late 2009 and early 2010, it will demonstrate a reliable system capable of operating continuously on jet fuel and accelerating through multiple Mach numbers