Lost Marquardt SERJ engine

MihoshiK said:
Oh, I've heard those rumors all over the place. Many many places. Well, okay, not many. But still. Rumors. Err. Rumor.

But I've definatively heard it.

Quite possibly here. In this thread....
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I've heard a couple dozen J93s went "missing" and were used to launch hypersonic aircraft into space. By no less than Aviation Week.
 
Sferrin said:
I've heard a couple dozen J93s went "missing" and were used to launch hypersonic aircraft into space. By no less than Aviation Week.
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There is no credible evidence a J93 has gone missing. Some didn't fly because they were cannibalized for the canceled B70 projects. Some parts might be in some warehouse somewhere but no credible evidence exists that a complete article went missing and the existing ones are accounted for. I would love for there to be a missing engine somewhere, somehow. But the odds are not in our favor. There is also no paperwork to show J93's were used to launch hypersonic vehicles. They did use the XB70 to test configurations but not the engine. As far as paperwork goes.

As for the SERJ engines, they were largely test articles/technology demonstrators. They were put together with parts that were already used in testing Marquardt's other engines. The faith of each one those those is unknown, likely because parts were used on two or more test articles. All but one were sub-scale prototypes. And even the one full scale version was also a prototype. Not a production prototype. Which was most likely also made using off the shelf components. This is supported by the fact none of the test articles were airworthy. Do some components, which were used in these articles survive? Maybe. I can see a part in a box someone put in storage was used on one of these engines still laying about. But a complete engine? The evidence does not support this hypothesis.
 

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