Posted on 09/28/2007 10:34:42 AM PDT by Freeport
Sustained hypersonic flight above speeds of Mach 5 by vehicles using air-breathing, jet-fuel-powered engines could become achievable within the next dozen years.
Successful recent ground tests of jet-fueled, ramjet/scramjet demonstrator engines by Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne and Aerojet represent important progress toward flight-testing of three separate hypersonic-vehicle programs.
In September, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne (PWR) completed 10 months' testing of a sub-scale combustor for a hydrocarbon-powered, dual-mode ramjet engine designed to operate over a wide range of Mach-number speeds -- that is, multiples of the speed of sound.
Using JP-7 jet fuel, PWR ran the combustor successfully at a variety of Mach numbers from Mach 2.5 to Mach 6.0, demonstrating "desired operability and performance" at each speed, the company said.
Under a DARPA/U.S. Air Force program, Boeing is making the X-51A hypersonic demonstrator aircraft, with the aim of making the first test flight in 2009. Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne is making the X-1 JP-7 jet-fuel scramjet engine for the X-51A, which is also known as the WaveRider, because effectively it will surf the shock wave of compressed air that the aircraft creates in front of it as it flies at speeds well in excess of Mach 5. Credit: Pratt & Whitney
In April 2007, Pratt & Whitney's X-1 JP-7-fueled demonstrator scramjet engine completed a simulated Mach 5 flight of the X-51A WaveRider -- officially known as the Scramjet Engine Demonstrator - WaveRider, or SED-WR -- at the NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va. The demonstrator engine, which has fitted with full authority digital engine controls and a closed-loop thermal management system that uses the fuel itself as a coolant, was designated the SJX61-1. Credit: Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne
(Excerpt) Read more at aviation.com ...
“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!
“PREPARE FOR LUDICROUS SPEED!”
Would you believe a Mach 14 tunnel is available?
http://www.vki.ac.be/ar-dept/index.html
Then click on “Facilities”
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.
The tunnel at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va.
I’m prepared. I won’t be satisfied until we can at least hit LUDICROUS 25.
This is the tunnel they were using: Arc-Heated Scramjet Test Facility NASA Langley Research Center
SR-71s used in flight refueling to fill the aircraft after takeoff.
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
Thanks.
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..."
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....)
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.
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.
“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.
Although it was nearly 40 years ago that they first flew supersonic.
Tupolev Tu-144, June 5th 1969
Concorde, October 1st, 1969.
But it sure would be cool!
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