Word: ramjet
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Dates: during 1947-1947
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...speed record (650.6 m.p.h.). Douglasmen hoped that it would make air history by breaking through the sonic wall-i.e., by flying faster than the speed of sound (about 765 m.p.h. at sea level). ¶ In St. Louis, the McDonell Aircraft Corp. put the world's first ramjet helicopter* through its paces for the U.S. Air Force. In test flights, the 310-lb. "flying bike" readily lifted an additional 300 Ibs. and attained a speed of 50 m.p.h. To the Air Force, it looked like just the thing for short-range observation work, artillery spotting and courier service...
...missiles through the sonic barrier. So they had, but their missiles were even less airplanelike than Vicky. Even the initially controlled V-2 (which reaches nearly five times the speed of sound) is not supported by the air, as a genuine airplane must be. The U.S. Navy's ramjet, or "flying stovepipe," is merely a power plant boosted into the air for a brief, uncontrolled flight...