A hydrogen-powered plane that could go from Los Angeles to New York City in under an hour. But not any time soon. And only if you're in the military. The Boeing X-51 is an experimental plane that can go up to 3,600 mph - three times faster than the Concorde. And this week, it will be tested in the real world.
The unmanned plane, which looks like it emerged from a vintage sci-fi novel, is 'airbreathing' - meaning it operates using onboard hydrogen fuel and oxygen pulled from the atmosphere. The compression of the two gases gives the plane enough thrust to travel at hypersonic speeds.
1 comment(s):
Ummm, actually it was tested a few weeks ago, and failed.
http://www.aviationweek.com/Article.aspx?id=/article-xml/awx_08_15_2012_p0-486354.xml
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