NYC to SF in...minutes?

Alas, this is the final culmination of NASA's research into hypersonic flight, after $230 million in recent spending in that area. Money is now being diverted to Bush's proposed efforts towards human exploration of the moon and Mars. Guess we won't be seeing half hour flights to Europe any time soon.

Wired News: X-43A Jet Breaks Air Speed Record: "NASA engineers shattered the aircraft speed record on Tuesday by flying their unmanned X-43A jet off the coast of California at nearly 6,600 miles per hour.

The historic flight began at about 2:36 p.m. and lasted a mere 10 seconds, when mission controllers shut off the X-43A's experimental 'scramjet' engine and allowed the aircraft to glide down to its grave in the Pacific Ocean as planned. Early data from the flight showed that the aircraft reached a top velocity of Mach 9.6, or 9.6 times the speed of sound. NASA officials immediately called the experiment a success and said it proved the capabilities of the scramjet engine, which has no moving parts and emits only water as exhaust."