NASA’s Mach 9.6 X-43A ‘Hypersonic Scramjet’ Remains an Engineering Marvel
Just a couple of decades ago, aviation had some rules. If you wanted to fly fast within the atmosphere, you used a jet engine. The champion here was the SR-71 Blackbird, designed by Lockheed Martin, but it maxed out at Mach 3. If you wanted to go faster, you needed a rocket. But that also…