X-51 hypersonic scramjet flight delayed by errant freighter
The X-51A Waverider scramjet test scheduled for yesterday has been delayed for 24 hours by a freighter wandering into the Pacific firing range where the trial flight is to take place. According to a statement issued by US spokesmen at Edwards airforce base - where the X-51's launch aircraft, a modified B-52 bomber operated by …
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Ouch
Least they didn't launch and hit it. The boat's crew would never have known what hit them!
Sailors, eh?
Probably didn't realise where they were and just thought they were orbiting the Isle of Sheppey.
Wonder if...
..that errant ship had more aerials than most and wasn't there by mistake?
/black helicopters for the obvious reasons
Was the ship
a Russian "fishing trawler". The type with loads of sophisticated snooping gear in its hull instead of fish?
Probably an innocent Russian Freighter
packed to the gills with electronic surveillance equipment.
Bad taste joke alert
Now if this had been the North Koreans running the test...
Re: Bad taste joke alert
[Converting to a good taste joke]
...the X-51 would officially, instead of ditching, fly onwards and upwards into orbit to forever play revolutionary anthems composed by the Dear Leader.
At least they bother checking now
They did manage to learn from what happened to the Lucky Dragon
Sure, unprofessional... no, professional ex-KGB more like it.
Wasn't there already a failed test flight of one of these? They successfully launched and got like <5 seconds of telemetry before it fell apart.
More than likely it was a case of Russian captain saying, "Da, Chinese contact told to park here and collect pieces."
Time for something else then
If they are keeping an eye out for surface shipping, then the Powers that Be must get cracking to deploy a submerible in that area quickly if they are to recover the "lost" testbed and develop the next generation equipment themselves...
Though I notice that this article comes out at about the time of the rescheduled test. Hmmm.
That's what I get for relying on El Reg for my top-secret intelligence. Zut!
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