expertise with hypersonic vehicles and spacecraft. On Saturday, a NASA Dryden Flight Research Center B-52 aircraft flown from Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., carried the X-43A off the California coast ...

NASA's X-43A hypersonic demonstrator is gearing up for its second Mach 7 flight attempt next month, the outcome of which may determine whether the program will make a third flight attempt at Mach 10.

In 2004, the 12-foot-long, unmanned X-43A was the fastest powered air-breathing vehicle to date at Mach 6.8 in March and Mach 9.6 in November. Each record flight was just seconds long, yet in those ...