Zee Media Bureau
Washington: The first ever supersonic HFL Kholod Mach 6.47 scramjet is to go up for auction on 8th September.
Khalod was jointly developed by NASA and Russia`s Central Institute of Aviation Motors.
It is one of the fastest machines ever built and was the first ever scramjet -- a type of ramjet air-breathing jet engine propelled by cryogenically cooled liquid hydrogen combusted in supersonic airflow -- to complete a successful test flight, back in 1991.
The Kholod program was joined by NASA in 1994 and the fifth Kholod rocket was launched on February 12, 1998, reaching an altitude of 27.1 kilometres and a top speed of Mach 6.47; 7926 kph, or 4925mph, a speed that can only be exceeded by spacecraft.
The joint venture cost a grand total of 95 million dollars and would go under auction by RM Auctions in London and it would be one of just three of the nine original rockets that are still intact, and has been listed without reserve.
