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Boeing X-33

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posted on Oct, 27 2006 @ 09:29 PM
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Hey, all. My little brother recently read one of Dan Brown's books. He asked be about the Hellfire missile, then asked about the Boeing X-33. At first I wasn't sure, I thought it might have been an offshoot of the X-32 (ugly little thing....). I didn't have much to tell him. After some quick Googling we found a few things- Mach 13-15 at 60,000 ft concept. It satisfied him, but my brain has hit the "Destroy Robinson family!" stage.

I looked up the SR-71's record, Mach 3.6 at 80,000 ft. Judging by this, I don't think it's possible to hit Mach 15 at 60,000 without a wonder-substance. The heat from friction would be just too much.

Does anyone have some information off the X-33 or anything else that would allow a craft to cruise at Mach 13-15 at 60,000? I've always wanted to debunk the "All technologies here are proven, etc..." speech at the front of Dan Brown's books.



posted on Oct, 27 2006 @ 09:53 PM
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Don't know alot about it sorry, but it may be made out of
titanium, composites and carbon panels, like the Space
shuttle has.

Space Shuttle tops out speed wise at MACH 25 I believe it is.



This may be informative, Wikipedia article.

[edit on 10/27/2006 by iori_komei]



posted on Oct, 27 2006 @ 10:01 PM
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Yeah, but that's on re-entry at altitudes way higher than FL600, isn't it?


jra

posted on Oct, 28 2006 @ 01:10 AM
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The X-33 was being built by Lockheed and it was about 85% complete, but it was scraped, due to some parts of the design not working right and it becoming way over budget.

I don't know what all this flying at 60,000 at mach 15 is about. The X-33 was ment to replace the space shuttle. More here.

At the bottom under the fiction section it mentions a 'Boeing X-33' briefly.



posted on Oct, 28 2006 @ 03:07 AM
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Yes, it was supposed to replace the aging space-ships.

X-33 Factsheet

X-33 Timeline



posted on Oct, 28 2006 @ 12:31 PM
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Originally posted by jra
I don't know what all this flying at 60,000 at mach 15 is about. .


That's what I said when I took a look at the "facts" in the book. In the book the pilot says that the aircraft flies at Mach 15. After the flight the pilot comments on Langdon's altitude sickness, saying that he didn't take it "all the way up". He said he only tok it to 60,000 feet. Personally I don't think that this is possible at 60,000.

Mach 15+60,000 feet=Error.



posted on Oct, 28 2006 @ 06:33 PM
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The "X-33" in Dan Brown's book was just a fictional story element. It was never intended to represent an actual airplane.



posted on Oct, 30 2006 @ 08:56 AM
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The X-33 was a suborbital tech demonstrator for a follow on orbital single stage to orbit spacecraft.

It or the follow on Venture Star were not a replacements for the shuttle as they would have been unmanned.



posted on Oct, 30 2006 @ 06:14 PM
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The failure in the X-33 project was in the fuel cell and that it contunied to fail on pressureisation or something like that. sorry im so vague.



posted on Jan, 7 2009 @ 01:51 AM
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reply to post by Darkpr0
 


I'm not really that clued up on space travel and speed of sound an all that jazz. But I am busy reading the book and would like to review the facts too. And here is what I think.

Although the pilot says that the plane can do mach 15. It never says anywhere that the plane acctually reached mach 15.
Other articles that I have read stated that at 60000 feet, the plane could have traveled at mach 7 and still been able to make it within the hour stated. It would have also been abe to withstand the extreme heat at that altitude as the plane is made from titanium.



posted on Jan, 7 2009 @ 11:07 AM
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not fuel cell, but liquid hydrogen tank made out of composites. Although this tastes a lot like a project which has gone black...



posted on Jan, 7 2009 @ 06:38 PM
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Originally posted by iori_komei
Don't know alot about it sorry, but it may be made out of
titanium, composites and carbon panels, like the Space
shuttle has.


The Shuttle is actually made of aluminium not titanium, because of the cost of and the difficulty of machining titanium.



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