Hypersonic Jets Prepare to Soar

aviation ^ | 28 September 2007 | Chris Kjelgaard

[Freeport]

Real work on Scramjets started in the ‘60’s... Material Sciences weren’t up to the task and it was back burnered for 30 years.

[clippedwing]

“Airliner performance has been essentially unchanged in 40 years. We’re still stuck in fat, tubular, slow cattle cars. And we’ll live out our lives and die before we see anything different. 787’s are nothing but 707’s with neat computers, plastic parts, and quieter engines.”

Well then by all means....make one yourself and show us all how the really smart people make airplanes!

[massgopguy]

“PREPARE FOR LUDICROUS SPEED!”

[thackney]

Would you believe a Mach 14 tunnel is available?

http://www.vki.ac.be/ar-dept/index.html

Then click on “Facilities”

[DoughtyOne]

I’ve heard pretty much the same thing. In fact I beleive the SR-71 went airborne with a small amount of fuel, then was loaded at elevation. I beleive I’ve read this.

As for the technology, you may be right. It would seem though that if the tech got the Aurora going to it’s sustainable speed, that same tech could be used commercially.

The Aurora must operate at a somewhat reasonable length of mission. It seems that would rule out exotic fuels, but then my assumption may be flawed.

[Freeport]

The tunnel at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va.

[DoughtyOne]

I’m prepared. I won’t be satisfied until we can at least hit LUDICROUS 25.

[Freeport]

The supersonic & hypersonic tunnels depicted are all small ones.

This is the tunnel they were using: Arc-Heated Scramjet Test Facility NASA Langley Research Center

[Doctor Raoul]

SR-71s used in flight refueling to fill the aircraft after takeoff.

[andy58-in-nh]

Year 2020. NYC to London flight:

Wait for baggage check-in: 1:05
Wait line at security checkpoint: 0:55
Flight boarding delay: 1:15.
Ground hold at JFK: 1:25
28th in line for departure: 1:35
Flight time: 0:50

[DoughtyOne]

Thanks.

[Freeport]

Ain’t that the truth!

[OCC]

The NASP or "Orient Express" program (and SDI) inspired me to take interest in math and science as a young skull full of mush in the 80's. Sure thought we would be further along by now. Space Station Freedom was supposed to be completed by 1992!

The program to develop what is called the National Aerospace Plane (NASP), designated the X-30, had its roots in a highly classified, Special Access Required, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) project called Copper Canyon, which ran from 1982 to 1985. Originally conceived as a feasibility study for a single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) airplane which could take off and land horizontally, Copper Canyon became the starting point for what Ronald Reagan called:<1> "...a new Orient Express that could, by the end of the next decade, take off from Dulles Airport and accelerate up to twenty-five times the speed of sound, attaining low earth orbit or flying to Tokyo within two hours..."

[Freeport]

Were getting closer! I’d hate to have to pay for the ticket though!

Think about it. If a sub-orbital space shot for tourists is in the $200,000 range, and those go Mach 3, what do you think a flight in somting like this is going to be?!

Quite frankly, I think someone with a sub-orbital craft will get a NYC to London flight service going before a scramjet will.

And after what Burt Rutan & Branson are doing, I think SS3 might just be that!

(SS4 would be an orbital craft.... At least in my day dreams....)

[thackney]

Thanks, I was just surprised they were available at any size. I assumed scaling was necessary regardless of the facility. I am still impressed. With the facility you linked Mach 8 in a four foot diameter test area is very impressive.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Weren’t hypersonic jets “preparing to soar” twenty years ago when Reagan mentioned them in some speech? I’m not hopeful of ever flying in one during my lifetime, though it might make cattle-car economy class a little more bearable by shortening the flight.

[DesScorp]

“Well then by all means....make one yourself and show us all how the really smart people make airplanes!”

In case you missed it before, let me be even less subtle...technology isn’t the problem. We can make all manner of wondrous things, and we’ve had supersonic technology that could be used in airliners for 40+ years.

The problem is economics and politics. So, by all means, fix those problems yourself and show us how all the really smart people make these technologies practical.

[Freeport]

Marketing & PR guys only... Us engineers were, and to some extent still are, wondering who their drug dealers were... Their meds were WAY better than ours....

[thackney]

we’ve had supersonic technology that could was be used in airliners for 40+ 27 years.

Although it was nearly 40 years ago that they first flew supersonic.

Tupolev Tu-144, June 5th 1969

Concorde, October 1st, 1969.

[OCC]

There are very few people that need to get from London to NYC in 50 minutes or 240 minutes. The Concorde proved that!

But it sure would be cool!