A possible contender to arm USAF’s next generation bomber has fired its scramjet engine for the first and completed a critical design review, according to a Boeing release. Air Force Research Lab’s Propulsion Directorate manages the X-51A WaveRider Scramjet Engine Demonstrator program for a consortium comprising USAF, DARPA, NASA, Boeing, and Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne. The goal is to demonstrate hypersonic technology that Boeing’s Advanced Systems president, George Muellner, says could be used to deliver payloads to space as well as other atmospheric flight applications. He said earlier this year that it might well be adapted for the NGB.
A new report from the Government Accountability Office calls for the Pentagon’s Chief Technology Officer to have budget certification authority over the military services’ research and development accounts—a move the services say would add a burdensome and unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.
