AFRL, based at Wright-Patterson, managed the $300 million experimental flight test program with the Boeing Co., which manufactured the airframe, and Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, which assembled the engine. The three will share the award. The Air Force has researched designing and building hypersonic weapons.
A 24-member honors and awards committee picked the X-51 from among seven nominations, according to AIAA spokesman Duane Hyland. “It has to be a really extraordinary accomplishment,” he said.
In a statement, AIAA Foundation Chairman Mark Lewis said the X-51 set a milestone in aviation history.
“This is such a fitting tribute because the X-51A program was truly a milestone in atmospheric flight, establishing beyond any doubt that a vehicle can be propelled at sustained hypersonic speeds using an air-breathing engine powered by a relatively conventional fuel,” he said. “The success of the X-51A Waverider program is more than just an outstanding technical accomplishment: It is the culmination of nearly five decades of research in the field, and a testament to what a team of aerospace professionals can achieve when they are united in the pursuit of a barrier-shattering advance in flight.”
On the Waverider’s fourth and final flight last May, the unmanned aircraft launched with a rocket booster after a drop off the wing of a B-52 Stratofortress bomber at 50,000 feet over a Pacific missile test range. A scramjet engine blasted the X-51 to beyond a speed of Mach 5 off the coast of California during the six-minute flight that ended when the experimental vehicle fell into the ocean. The X-51 program had two flight test failures.
Prior award winners included NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Mars Curiosity rover, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, the National Reconnaissance Office, and the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, among others.
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