Article: Around the world in two hours; NASA unveils the fastest aircraft--but don't counton flying in it yet.(hypersonic aircraft X-43A)(Brief Article)

This month, the X-43A experimental aircraft will take its first flight over the Pacific Ocean, whipping through the air at speeds up to Mach 10, which is 10 times the speed of sound. If successful, the pilotless 10-second flight will trounce the record speed of Mach 6.7 set in October 1967 by NASA's 50-foot-long, missile-shaped, rocket-powered X-15. Flying at triple the speed of the Concorde, the X-43A, a project of NASA's Hyper-X program, will seize the record as the world's fastest plane and hold out hope that someday its descendants will fly passengers from Calgary to New York in less than half an hour.

The U.S. agency has spent $185 million so far on the ...

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