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email: PROGRAM
SUMMARY NASA has begun a multi-year
hypersonic flight-test program by contracting for the
fabrication of four Hypersonic Flight Experimental Vehicles
that will fly up to ten times the speed of sound. The
five-year Hyper-X program will demonstrate hypersonic
propulsion technologies. Hypersonic speed is defined as
above Mach 5, which is equivalent to about one
mile-per-second, or approximately 3,600 miles per hour at
sea level. We usually think of speed in terms of
miles-per-hour. With high-performance aircraft like the
SR-71,
speed is measured in tens of miles-per-minute. Hyper-X opens
up the frontier for air breathing aircraft with speeds
measured in miles-per-second. MicroCraft, Inc. of Tullahoma, Tenn.,
is responsible for vehicle fabrication and flight-test
support. This will include the four research vehicles and
the vehicle-to-booster adapter for mating of the research
vehicles to the nose of the expendable booster rocket. Team
members working with MicroCraft are Boeing, Seal Beach,
Calif., GASL, Inc., Ronkonkoma, N.Y.; and Accurate
Automation Corp., Chattanooga, Tenn. The Hyper-X Phase I program -- an
agency-wide effort to address one of the greatest
aeronautical research challenges -- is conducted jointly by
Dryden and Langley. Program management hopes to demonstrate
technology that could ultimately be applied in vehicle types
from hypersonic aircraft to reusable space launchers. Each
of four vehicles will be approximately 12 feet long with a
wing span of about five feet. Vehicle and engine ground
tests and analyses will be performed prior to each flight in
order to compare flight and ground test results. Background
One of the primary goals of NASA's
Aeronautics Enterprise, as delineated in the NASA Strategic
Plan, specifies the development and demonstration of
technologies for air-breathing hypersonic flight. Since the
cancellation of the National Aerospace Plane (NASP) program
in November 1994, the United States has not had a cohesive
hypersonic technology development program, so the time is
right for a new "better, faster, cheaper" program. Hyper-X
is capturing NASP technology, quickly moving it forward to
the next step, which is demonstration of hypersonic air
breathing propulsion. Program
Objectives
The goal of the Hyper-X program is to
flight validate key propulsion and related technologies for
air-breathing hypersonic aircraft. The first Hyper-X is
scheduled to fly at Mach 7 in 1998. The world's fastest
air-breathing aircraft, the SR-71, cruises slightly above
Mach 3. The highest speed attained by NASA's rocket-powered
X-15
was Mach 6.7, back in 1967. Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD)
Image of Hyper-X at Mach 7 Test Condition. Heading the technology wish-list for
the Hyper-X program is demonstration of a ramjet/scramjet
engine, followed by demonstration of design tools and
methods for air-breathing hypersonic vehicles. The scramjet
engine is the key enabling technology for this program.
Without it, sustained hypersonic flight could prove
impossible. Ramjets operate by subsonic
combustion of fuel in a stream of air compressed by the
forward speed of the aircraft itself, as opposed to a normal
turbojet engine, in which the compressor section (the fan
blades) compresses the air. In comparison to turbojets,
ramjets have no moving parts. Scramjets (supersonic-combustion
ramjets) are ramjet engines in which the airflow through the
whole engine remains supersonic. Scramjet technology is
challenging because only limited testing can be performed in
ground facilities. Long duration, full-scale testing
requires flight test speeds above Mach 8. Hyper-X will build
knowledge, confidence and a technology bridge to very high
Mach number flight. The fuel for Hyper-X will be
hydrogen. Rockets carry their own oxygen for combustion; an
air-breathing scramjet engine burns oxygen scooped from the
atmosphere. Scramjets therefore get their oxygen in the same
manner as normal jet engines do. Because of this,
air-breathing hypersonic vehicles should carry more
cargo/payload than equivalent rocket-powered systems, due
simply to having more weight and payload space available
because of not having to carry its oxidizer
onboard. Page
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