Whether the missile was fired by the plane, which locals believe, or was a misfired anti-aircraft rocket, is hard to say.
Last year, in its most recent test, the X-51 fell for about four seconds before its booster rocket ignited, but the aircraft failed to separate from the rocket and plunged into the ocean.
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The effort, which is being put together by Peter Diamandis, chairman and CEO of the X Prize Foundation, and Granger Whitelaw, a venture capitalist and partner in two winning Indianapolis 500 racing teams, is developing rocket-powered aircraft with Mojave, Calif.
Will Whitehorn, Virgin Galactic's president, said that one of the things which attracted Aabar was the fact that White Knight (an aircraft which lifts to high altitude a rocket that can then take either passengers or satellites onwards into space) could be flown from Abu Dhabi.
On that morning, Staff Sergeant Romesha and his comrades awakened to an attack by an estimated 300 enemy fighters occupying the high ground on all four sides of the complex, employing concentrated fire from recoilless rifles, rocket propelled grenades, anti-aircraft machine guns, mortars and small-arms fire.
It took off slung beneath the WhiteKnightTwo aircraft, which does the job of lifting the rocket plane to its launch altitude - some 45, 000ft (14km).
The vehicle was dropped from a carrier aircraft high above California's Mojave Desert and ignited its rocket engine to go supersonic for a few seconds.
They will also presumably look at the threat posed by rocket-propelled grenades, an older but still effective means of bringing down aircraft.
He suffered broken bones and detached retinas, but out of these wild rides - by December 1954, Stapp had volunteered for 29 rocket sled deceleration and windblast experiments - came improved helmets, arm and leg restraints, better aircraft seats, stronger safety harnesses and techniques for positioning the body to help absorb powerful forces.
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