X-51A / X-51 Waverider Test Flight Taxi And Takeoff

B-52 aircraft that deploys the X-51 taxiing the runway prior to its takeoff and the takeoff of the aircraft. Courtesy: United States Air Force EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif (AFNS) -- An X-51A Waverider flight-test vehicle successfully made the longest supersonic combustion ramjet-powered hypersonic flight May 26 off the southern California Pacific coast. The more than 200 second burn by the X-51’s Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne-built air breathing scramjet engine accelerated the vehicle to Mach 6.