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Supersonic jet crashes in test

A Japanese supersonic jetliner model explodes as it crashes in Woomera, Australia, on Sunday. — AP

WOOMERA (Australia) JULY 14. A scale model of a Japanese supersonic jetliner crashed and exploded in the central Australian desert shortly after it was launched on Sunday on the back of a booster rocket, witnesses said.

The disastrous end to the first test of Japan's National Experimental Supersonic Transport, or NEXST, came seconds after its take-off from the Woomera rocket testing range.

Nobody was injured in the crash as both the rocket and the model plane were unmanned.

The director of the team developing the model plane, Kimio Sakata, said they were not sure why the plane separated from the rocket moments after being launched.

Researchers will investigate the wreckage to determine what happened.

``We have to redesign, remanufacture some of the components of the equipment. After that we would like to have another launch,'' Mr. Sakata said.

The Japanese Government-funded project aims to build a plane that would fly at twice the speed of sound, with the supersonic boom reduced to the rumble of a Boeing 747. It would fly twice the distance of the Concorde and seat three times the passengers.

After the rocket climbed to about 100 metres, it turned over and began spiralling erratically through the air before slamming into the ground and exploding, witnesses at the test site said.

The launch had been postponed several times because the wind was too strong in the desert.

The 11-metre model was to have ridden piggyback on the booster rocket to a height of 20 km at a speed of 2,450 kmph.

After performing a barrel roll, the booster was supposed to release the model, which would glide to earth in a 14-minute flight to test its automatic flight systems.

Mr. Sakata said his team still hoped to complete a further three tests, planned for later this year, of the model's aerodynamics, which were developed through computer simulations and seek to cut the noise of supersonic flight in half. In phase two of the $200-million project, 20 tests under powered flight have been set to begin in late 2005. The project is being run by Japan's National Aerospace Laboratory.

There was no immediate comment from Boeing Co., which is developing its own ``Sonic Cruiser'' — designed to fly at just under the speed of sound — and was eagerly awaiting the results of the Japanese project.

Wade Cornelius, Boeing's vice-president for global strategy, had said a successful test could lead to some cooperation between Boeing and the Japanese team. — AP

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