Posted on 08/02/2002 12:04:14 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
By SPACE.com Staff, SPACE.com
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The world's first flight test of a scramjet engine, conducted over the Australian outback, appears to have gone well, University of Queensland officials report.
"So far it has all gone to plan. The launch was a success, and we received data for the duration of the flight," said Allan Paull, team leader of the program dubbed HyShot.
A Terrier Orion Mk70 rocket boosted the scramjet engine toward the upper atmosphere at 10:05 p.m. EDT Monday (0205 GMT Tuesday), flying its mission over the Woomera Prohibited Range.
The aim of the experiment was to achieve the world's first flight test of air-breathing supersonic ramjet engines, also known as scramjets. Such engines, which speed along at about Mach 8 -- or eight times the speed of sound -- could revolutionize commercial air travel by reducing flight times.
Rockets launching smaller satellites into Earth orbit might also take advantage of the technology, which combines hydrogen fuel with atmospheric air being "rammed" into the carefully shaped engine and pressurized by the great speed. The mixture is ignited like a jet engine and the hot gases expelled to produce thrust.
Paull said although signs so far are positive, it still is too early to say the scramjet experiment succeeded. The scramjet experiment took place during the final few seconds of the flight, which lasted almost 10 minutes.
"Hopefully we’ll be in a better position to make that assessment in the next couple of days, but at the moment I’m feeling confident," he said. "Nevertheless, even at this early stage we have achieved what no else has managed to do, helping put Australia at the forefront on this new technology."
Scramjet technology has been tested in wind tunnels but no actual civilian flight tests have been conducted. Different attempts during the past two years by Japanese and American researchers failed.
I expected the flight times to be reduced by the great speed, but I didn't expect the flight to be over quite that soon.
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