Hangar 18: The UFO Warehouse

Hangar 18 at mysterious Wright Patterson AFB is subject of a UFO Files episode, "Hangar 18: The UFO Warehouse."  A description of episode follows below:  "What happens when a UFO crashes? Some experts claim that the UFO wreckage and even the pilots are transported to a top-secret facility in Dayton, Ohio called "Hangar 18" located on Wright Patterson Air Force Base. Declassified Government documents prove that the "disk" from the famous Roswell event and fragments of other mysterious crashes were shipped to Wright Patterson. Hear stories involving elected officials, UFO researchers, and former base employees, some of whom are going on the record regarding "Hangar 18." They spin a tale of flying saucer debris, alien bodies, cryogenic chambers and a vast underground network that may hold the secrets to the UFO mystery. Is there a conspiracy to hide UFO evidence from the highest branches in the U.S. Government, or is it all just a myth?" You can finally hear what military men were told to shut up about in the past!

x-51a waverider test flight

A test of X-51A set to achieve hypersonic flight today, dropped from under the wing of a B-52, reports Universe Today. You can view the previous May 26, 2010 flight on You Tube, where the X-plane performed for 200 seconds. X-planes are designed to be dropped from under a wing of a B-52. Test fights conducted over the Pacific Ocean take off primarily from Edwards AFB in California. A nice history of the X-Plane program is available on NASA website.

A description of hypersonic plane is provided by US Air Force website:

"...flight test vehicle stack is approximately 25 feet long and includes a modified solid rocket booster from an Army Tactical Missile, a connecting interstage, and the X-51A cruiser... cruiser is designed to ride its own shockwave, thus the nickname, Waverider...distinctive, shark-nosed cruiser... houses the heart of the system, an SJY61 supersonic combustion ramjet or scramjet engine built by Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne designed to burn JP-7 jet fuel. Boeing's Phantom Works performed overall air vehicle design, assembly and testing for the X-51's various component systems."

A booster allows X-51A to reach sufficient speed, where scramjet engine can fire and ride the wave. It's compared to lighting a match in a hurricane and keeping it lit!

A glimpse of intended use for X-51A is clearly stated in this space.com article, "'we could have in the future such things as hypersonic weapons that fly 600 nautical miles in 10 minutes,' said Charlie Brink, X-51A program manager with the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, during a June 1[2010] teleconference. [Most destructive space weapon concepts.]" I feel safer with the knowledge that military can deliver payloads anywhere on planet in just hours! I suspect former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who placed programs under Air Force auspices, is smiling!