6/3: NASA plane is destroyed

[lisa]

[i]the reason it is so small is because it is made for testing a scram jet... some sort of air combustion engine that doesn't need onboard fuel [hence it can be a helluva lot smaller and might go faster]... but hey i could be wrong, this is just what i've assimilated from reading on the topic.[/b]

If memory serves, a scramjet does require fuel. The main improvement is that the jet does not require a turbine to compress the air; it uses the narrowing shape of the intake and the airflow itself to compress the air. This is why it requires to be moving at fast speed before it can even be started -- it needs the airflow to run.

But these are supposed to be a lot lighter and more efficent than conventional jet engines.