WaveRider

A WaveRider is a hypersonic aircraft design that improves its supersonic lift-to-drag ratio by using the shock waves being generated by its own flight as a lifting surface, a phenomenon known as compression lift. To date the only aircraft to use the technique was the Mach 3 supersonic XB-70 Valkyrie, which used drooping wingtips to generate waverider lift.

The waverider remains a well-studied design for high-speed aircraft in the Mach 5 and higher hypersonic regime, although no such design has yet entered production. The Boeing X-51A scramjet demonstration aircraft was launched on Tuesday August 14, 2012. The X-51 successfully launched from the wing of a B-52 bomber, but after 16 seconds there was a problem with a control fin. The plane was unable to maintain its course, and the test was terminated before the X51-A's Scramjet engine was ignited. The craft then crashed into the ocean.