The United States Air Force has confirmed an attempt to fly its Hypersonic jet Waverider X-51A at Mach 6 failed its test flight.

An experimental United States military drone built to fly at blistering speeds of up to 3,600 mph — six times the speed of sound — plunged instead into the Pacific Ocean just seconds into a test fligh, US Air Force officials say.

The unmanned Hypersonic X-51A Waverider vehicle separated from its B-52 Stratofortress bomber mother ship as expected and fired up its rocket booster, but a control fin failure sent it plummeting into the sea around 16 seconds into the Hypersonic flight.

Program manager, of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, said in a brief, Charlie Brief said in a statement : ‘ It is unfortunate that a problem with this subsystem caused a termination before we could light the Scramjet engine. ‘

US Military’s Hypersonic X-51A Aircraft Fails Seconds After Launch

Hypersonic X-51A had its first test flight on May 26 last year, achieving speeds in excess of Mach 5, with a scramjet burn time of 140 seconds, making it capable of traveling between New York and London or Los Angeles to New York in less than 1 hour.

In flight demonstrations, the Hypersonic X-51 Waverider is carried by an Air Force B-52 Stratofortress bomber to an altitude of about 50 thousand feet and then released over the Pacific Ocean.

In the latest exercise, the drone craft flew for only 16 seconds before going out of control and crashing into the Pacific Ocean. The Hypersonic X-51A Jet was attempting to make a 300 second, 5-minute experimental flight at velocities 5 times greater than the speed of sound, or more than 3,600 miles an hour.

It was the 3rd of four unrecoverable test vehicles, each weighing about 4,000 pounds, 25-feet in length, having a range of 460 miles, and a service ceiling of 70 thousand.

The US Hypersonic vehicle combines a solid rocket booster and a Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne SJY61 scramjet engine, with a projected maximum speed of Mach 6. It is named the WaveRider because it is a nearly wingless cruiser that is designed to ride its own shockwave.