If clear skies break over southern California on Monday, a B-52 bomber will take off from Edwards air force base and head out over the Pacific.
Slung beneath its right wing will be an experimental pilotless plane designed to break records by flying at 10 times the speed of sound.
The 3.5-metre-long (12ft) prototype, known to Nasa as the X-43A, will hitch a ride on the bomber to 12,000 metres (40,000ft) before an on-board rocket takes over, boosting it to 34,000 metres. The rocket will then fall away, leaving the plane free to fly - powered by a revolutionary engine, the scramjet.
Shortly after 9.30pm GMT, the X-43A will accelerate, if all goes smoothly, to 7,000mph, before its engine switches off and it descends to plunge into the ocean some 850 miles from shore.
The test flight is the culmination of an eight-year, $250m (
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