Riding the wave of music into the realm of outer space was a recent accomplishment by Music Professor Greg Danner.

Danner, a nationally known composer, created “Waverider,” an intense instrumental piece inspired by the flight of the Hyper X-43A, the world’s fastest aircraft research vehicle. The X-43A was engineered in Tullahoma at ATK GASL, a local aerospace defense industry.

“I wanted the composition to have a connection with the community at large," says Danner. "I’ve always had an interest in the space program, and came upon the X-43A project in doing research for the piece I planned to compose that would relate to Tullahoma.

“Wave riding is a technology used by this aircraft to get to these incredible speeds 10 times the speed of sound. This idea of wave rider technology brought a couple of ideas to me. One, of course, was speed. Intensifying the music can reflect soaring and reaching a certain height. It does kind of explode at times.”

Tullahoma High School band directors Steve and Marion Coleman arranged for the Danner composition through a Tennessee Arts Commission grant.

Lowell Keel, the X-43A program manager at ATK GASL, says he would like to see “Waverider” used as a soundtrack for a video documentary about the aircraft or in programs on cable television’s Discovery and History channels.

Danner has received annual ASCAP awards for composition since 1989. Former chairperson of the Department of Music and Art, he is a musician with the Bryan Symphony Orchestra, the Cumberland Wind Quintet and the Brass Arts Quintet.