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Aircraft: X-30 Mockup

x-30

This X-30 mockup is a one-third scale version of a proposed hypersonic spacecraft. It was built by engineering students from Mississippi State University in Starkville. The X-30 program was an advanced technology demonstrator for the National Aero-Space Plane (NASP), part of a NASA project to create an air-breathing single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) spacecraft and passenger space liner. Although development work in advanced materials and aerospace design was completed, the program was canceled in the early 1990s before a full-size prototype could be built. Although the eventual goal of the NASP was a Mach 25 (18,000 mph or 28,968 kph) passenger liner capable of two-hour flights from Washington D.C. to Tokyo, the X-30 itself was a test vehicle planned for a crew of two.