X-51A hydrocarb scramjet flames out in second test

The quest for practical hypersonic aircraft (or missiles, if that's what you like) suffered another setback on Monday when the second X-51A hydrocarbon-burning scramjet test vehicle had its engine flame go out above the Pacific and was unable to restart. An X-51A scramjet attached to the wing of a B-52 bomber ready for launch …

[NoneSuch]

The hamster running on the wheel...

...jumped over to the water tube to have a quick drink.

[Alex King]

Where do these people learn to write?

For anyone looking for a translation of the bit in bold. How about:

Our test plane's engine didn't start properly when we dropped it from a plane today, even when we pointed it in a better direction, so we let it fall into the sea in a controlled way.

[Francis Vaughan]

Unstart

The writing is a bit worse than this. The term "unstart" does not refer the the engine running, but to the positioning of the shockwave in the inlet. If the position of the shockwave is correct the inlet is "started," if the shockwave is ejected or fails to fall in the right position the inlet "unstarts". The attempt to change attitude of the craft was an attempt to make the shockwave sit correctly and thus "restart." This would then allow the engine to ignite the supersonic stream. Ignition has "starting" as a precondition, rather than a consequence. The writing is actually perfectly good, just written at the the wrong level and allowed to escape from captivity in a manner that makes it essentially incomprehensible.

[Mark 65]

Re:Unstart

"when the vehicle experienced an inlet un-start."

Sounds like something you may encounter after a night on the beer (precise interpretation left to the reader).

[TeeCee]

Re: Unstart

'If the position of the shockwave is correct the inlet is "started,".....'

Gosh really? How remiss of the English language not to have already provided a word to indicate the opposite state to "started"......

Anyone?........Anyone?.......Bueller?.........

[Anonymous Coward]

Unstart != Stall, Unstart != Stop

So no, your remark is not particularly useful.

[Anonymous Coward]

@Alex King

'Inlet un-start' sounds like rubbish, but it is a genuine technical term which describes what went wrong.

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Lockheed_SR-71_Blackbird#Air_inlets

I am with you on the last paragraph though, it just seems to be a long winded way of saying 'and then it fell in the sea.'

[JDC]

"fell into the sea"

Not quite the same, it flew in a controlled glide into the sea - fell implies a complete lack of control over the trajectory.

[ravenviz]

"For those uninterested in weapons"

Haven't we got enough weapons already?

[Dr. Mouse]

Weapons are like socks.

You can NEVER have too many.

[defiler]

Weapons like socks?

You end up with lots of odd ones?

[Nexox Enigma]

To be fair...

I haven't got any matching pair(s) of weapons... Still a few mated socks hanging around though... for now.

[Bobster]

Re: To be fair...

There's tons of odd mines laying around ...

[Scott Wheeler]

JP-7?

It seems unlikely that it was burning JP-7. That fuel was designed for the A12 / SR71, and we were told that the last of it had been burned off to dispose of it last year.

[TeeCee]

"un-start"?

UN-START????

Meanwhile, in the rest of the world, engines will continue to stop, stall, fail, die, flame out.....hell, it's not like there's a shortage of terms here.

I really can't understand this. Is that the Yanks all have piss-poor vocabularies and are too lazy to look shit up or is it that they're prats?

[Anonymous Coward]

mmm

maybe it was the alu-min-um thingy in the color centre circel area

[Anonymous Coward]

Double plus ungood

I think this is the icon you were looking for....

[Joe Cooper]

Un-good

When y'all build a scramjet and it bones itself, you can describe it with any words you like, pardner.

[Anonymous Coward]

Because...

An unstart is not the same as a stall, fail, death or flameout.

From an aeronautical/propulsion standpoint anyway.

[Joey]

transition

"attempted to transition to JP7 fuel operation". It really annoys me when people use nouns as verbs - just like the verb 'to leverage'

[Anonymous Coward]

Really annoyed

You must be quite pleased it is only that which really annoys you. Some people are really annoyed by not having enough food to eat or having their homes destroyed by earthquakes. Presumably they are less bothered by language inconguities.

[Anonymous Coward]

@AC re:Rally annoyed

I'm sure that people without food or homes are more than "really annoyed". If it were me, I'd probably be at least cross, or more likely angry, or even furious or livid.

[ravenviz]

Re: @AC re:Rally annoyed

In Britain we'd be "a little peckish".

[Marcus Aurelius]

Re: Rally annoyed

Would be rallycross!

[Adam West]

AC

Then maybe they should post on a forum about it so people can make smartarse comments.

Oh wait...

[Goat Jam]

Re: Really Annoyed

Great, because some PC obsessed commentard has decreed that nobody can be really annoyed unless they are a starving third world peasant we should all just shut up.

Is that it?

[Stratman]

title

"It really annoys me when people use nouns as verbs - just like the verb 'to leverage' "

According to Sam Goldwyn, "Any noun can be verbed"

[Mayhem]

Sam Goldwyn said that?

in two words ... Im. Possible.

[Graham Dawson]

@joey

You know how language works, right? Nouns derive rom verbs, verbs derive from nouns, both derive from everything else. It's what language does as it evolves. People coplainin about this are trying to prevent the very thing that made their language what it is in the first place.

Single example from millions: hand. It is a verb (you hand a thing to a person) derived from the noun "hand", that wiggly thing you use to type. I have to hand a handy object, which I shall hand to you using my hand. The type of type I type is typical.

In other words, shut up, you're making yourself look dumb.

[KevinLewis]

All great...

..but when can I use it to get to and form un-work quicker?

[Tom 7]

Dont they read the Reg?

They could have put in on of them there laser spark plug thingies you mentioned a few weeks ago.

[John Smith 19]

Another year, another attempt at scramjet action.

I can see why some arch skeptics call it a scam jet.

[Goat Jam]

Didn't some boffins from the UQLD make a working scramjet

with far less funding?

I wonder what happened to that?

[Anonymous Coward]

Will someone please tell the scientists...

... that these Scramjets arn't "flying", they're just falling very very fast!!! :)

[Head]

Hmmm

To: USA

From: Australia

Subject: Scram jets

Yeah, you're doing it wrong.