Video Caption: The US Air Force Research Laboratory’s Boeing X-51A WaveRider unmanned vehicle achieved the longest air-breathing hypersonic, scramjet-powered flight on its May 1 fourth test flight, flying for 3.5 minutes on supersonic-combustion ramjet power and reaching a maximum speed of Mach 5.1.

ESA PR – The revolutionary SpaceLiner concept offers a unique vision for a high-speed passenger transportation system of the future by seamlessly spanning the boundaries between aviation and spaceflight. Currently under design at the German Aerospace Center, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), the ultra-fast hypersonic spaceplane is designed to transport 50 passengers from Australia to Europe in an unprecedented 90 minutes.

The concept is based on a two-stage, fully reusable system – a passenger orbiter and a booster stage with an environmentally friendly rocket propulsion system fuelled by liquid hydrogen and oxygen. The engines will accelerate the SpaceLiner to more than 20 times the speed of sound in less than 10 minutes. Then, upon booster separation and from an altitude of about 80 kilometers, the passenger stage will glide down in a state of unpowered flight to land at its designated destination.

In this video, project manager Martin Sippel and his Australian Monash University PhD candidate, Olga Trivailo from the DLR Institute of Space Systems in Bremen, introduce the SpaceLiner and answer the most important questions about this visionary and cutting edge project.

Aviation Week has a report on a hypersonic test flight that took place on Wednesday:

The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory’s (AFRL) Boeing X-51A Waverider demonstrator successfully achieved sustained, scramjet-powered, air-breathing hypersonic flight above Mach 5 in its final test flight on May 1.

Although the Air Force is not yet commenting on details of the flight, the X-51A is thought to have experienced positive acceleration to speeds in excess of Mach 5 and run for the full duration of the planned powered phase of the test. Based on targets established for the previous test attempt, this could have been as long as 300 sec., followed by an unpowered gliding descent of around 500 sec. prior to impacting the sea in the Pacific Test range west of California. If these times and speeds are confirmed, they will represent new records for sustained, air-breathing hypersonic flight.

Read the full story.

DLR PR – The vision is enticing – board in Europe, sit back, and disembark 90 minutes later on the other side of the world, in Australia. But before the SpaceLiner, which is being developed by the Institute of Space Systems at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR), can fly a route like this for the first time, new technologies still have to be tested and basic requirements defined. Scientists from Germany, Austria, Spain, Switzerland, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, France and Sweden have been carrying out research for the Fast20XX (Future high-Altitude high-Speed Transport) project, which is supported by the EU, for three years. The results of the project, which has now been concluded, will influence the future design of the DLR SpaceLiner and the Aerospace Innovation GmbH ALPHA aircraft.

Flying like a space shuttle

The concept already exists; the DLR SpaceLiner is intended to stand upright like a space shuttle before launch and take off on its journey using rocket engines. After the initial burn, the reusable booster stage will separate from the orbiter, in which there will be a capsule with a capacity of 50 passengers. The glide phase will start eight minutes later, at 20 times the speed of sound. The landing, around 80 minutes later, will take place on a normal runway like a conventional aircraft. It is a project for which there are no existing examples: “We are having to define the dimensions ourselves and use computer models of the SpaceLiner to feel our way,” says DLR project coordinator Martin Sippel. “The SpaceLiner is a challenge in terms of both technology and operations.” So it is that the 17 partners in the Fast20XX research project have not been designing an aircraft, but rather investigating important interdisciplinary aspects for an aircraft capable of air and space travel. Multiple DLR institutes have been involved in the project; besides the Institute of Space Systems, the Institute of Aerospace Medicine, the Institute of Structures and Design and the Institute of Aerodynamics and Flow Technology have also contributed digital and experimental results.

Computer simulations

One important issue is cooling the space plane during flight. After the drive phase, the SpaceLiner glides, during which time it encounters friction from Earth’s atmosphere. At this stage, temperatures can reach up to 1800 degrees Celsius. The solution is active cooling on the aircraft nose and the leading edges of the wings. The idea is that water will escape from porous ceramic components and provide cooling as it evaporates. The DLR Institute of Structures and Design is developing and manufacturing suitable ceramics for this transpiration cooling and is simulating their flow on computers. Following work on Fast20XX with tests in the plasma wind tunnel at the DLR site in Cologne, the engineers are now certain that active cooling is possible using porous ceramic materials.

The scientists are also researching the airflow around the aircraft itself and are using computer programmes to model this. “The SpaceLiner will reach a flight altitude where atmospheric pressure is very low, so the flow phenomena change,” explains Sippel. Models were tested in a special wind tunnel at the DLR site in Göttingen and compared with digital simulations from Italian partner organisation CIRA. The agreement between the measurements and the simulations was sufficiently high that the simulations are being used to support the future design of the space plane.

Basic requirements for the high-speed aircraft

Besides researching the aerodynamics, materials and cooling, projects such as the SpaceLiner require numerous other types of research as well. For example, is flight at hypersonic speed even tolerable for the passengers? The Institute of Aerospace Medicine has given a green light. What approval requirements do the constructors of high-speed aircraft face? To what extent will the environment be affected – even though the SpaceLiner will only emit water as it flies? The 17 partners in the Fast20XX research project are also collating data and researching these topics. “Moreover, we have also worked out the situations in which a flight will need to be aborted and how to respond to situations such as an engine failure,” says Sippel. It is already clear that the SpaceLiner can only be launched far from inhabited areas – and that high-speed flight must take place at high altitudes in order to protect inhabited regions from sonic booms.

Many questions are still unanswered; how can the rocket engine be made to operate reliably and safely? What should the tank pressurisation system look like? How must the thermal protection system for the entire aircraft be designed? And what requirements must the passenger cabin meet, since it will also act as a rescue capsule in the event of an emergency? Then, the network of rescue centres on the ground would have to function flawlessly.

From space tourism to scheduled flights

For Martin Sippel, a first step on the road to transportation for long haul flights is Project ALPHA by Aerospace Innovation GmbH. This space plane, which was also researched in Fast20XX, is intended to be launched from an Airbus A330 at an altitude of 14 kilometres with two passengers and one pilot, and then reach an altitude of 100 kilometres. “Space tourism like this might be the first step and be achieved this decade – it is a test to see whether the market for such space vehicles exists,” explains the DLR researcher. The SpaceLiner is not intended for short flights in space, but for transporting passengers and goods in point-to-point travel over large intercontinental distances, and is to be principally privately financed, as normal flight is today. This is a long-term vision, according to Sippel, that will not start to happen before 2050. “We want to acquire a new, big market for spaceflight technology and so significantly reduce the costs for transporting satellites into space.”

In addition to being able to power a reusable, single-stage-to-orbit space plane, Reaction Engines’ SABRE propulsion technology could help to power a Mach 5 transport that would be able to fly from Brussels to Sydney in less than two to four hours.

The British company has designed a SABRE-derived SCIMITAR pre-cooled engine powered by liquid hydrogen that uses the company’s lightweight heat exchanges. The engine would be capable of sustained Mach 5 flight.

SCIMITAR Mach 5 engine. (Credit: Reaction Engines)

According to the company, the engine can:

• Be designed for efficient subsonic and hypersonic cruise modes
• Operate independently all the way from zero forward speed on the runway to Mach 5.5 i.e. they do not need assistance from other engines to get up to speed (c.f. scramjets need to be accelerated to Mach 3-4 before they will work)

Reaction Engines also has been studying a 300-passenger civilian transport capable of traveling approximately 12,500 miles:

The A2 vehicle, which is designed to be propelled by the Scimitar engine, has exceptional range (ca. 20,000 km both subsonic and supersonic) and is therefore able to service a large number of routes whilst simultaneously avoiding supersonic overflight of populated areas and the related sonic booms that can be heard on the ground. Its good subsonic performance enables it to service conventional subsonic overland routes.

LAPCAT concept. (Credit: Reaction Engines)

Reaction Engines is performing work on the project under the Long-term Advanced Propulsion Concepts and Technologies (LAPCAT) study, which is being 50 percent funded under the European Union’s Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development 6 (FP6).

LAPCAT Facts & Figures
(Source: Reaction Engines)

The news brings the promise of not only routine, affordable access to space but also point-to-point travel at Mach 5 and major improvements in fuel efficiency for existing airliners. The announcement featured a major endorsement of the technology by ESA, has has worked with the British company to evaluate the results of the tests, Reuters reports.

“ESA are satisfied that the tests demonstrate the technology required for the Sabre engine development,” the agency’s head of propulsion engineering Mark Ford told a news conference.

“One of the major obstacles to a re-usable vehicle has been removed,” he said. “The gateway is now open to move beyond the jet age.”

The space plane, dubbed Skylon, only exists on paper. What the company has right now is a remarkable heat exchanger that is able to cool air sucked into the engine at high speed from 1,000 degrees Celsius to minus 150 degrees in one hundredth of a second.

This core piece of technology solves one of the constraints that limit jet engines to a top speed of about 2.5 times the speed of sound, which Reaction Engines believes it could double….

The Sabre engine could take a plane to five times the speed of sound and an altitude of 25 km, about 20 percent of the speed and altitude needed to reach orbit. For space access, the engines would then switch to rocket mode to do the remaining 80 percent.

Reaction Engines believes Sabre is the only engine of its kind in development and the company now needs to raise about 250 million pounds ($400 million) to fund the next three-year development phase in which it plans to build a small-scale version of the complete engine.

Philippa Oldham, head of Transport and Manufacturing at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, issued the following statement in response to Reaction Engines’ announcement:

 “Keeping the engine from overheating has been one of the biggest obstacles to developing the SABRE engine, a technology which would enable flying speeds of up to five times the speed of sound, or as much as twenty-five times the speed of sound in Earth’s orbit.

“This new heat exchanger is able to control the SABRE engine temperature, which will have a great impact on UK aerospace engine industry. This technology has the potential to be used with current aeroplanes, which could improve fuel efficiency by up to 10%, saving airlines about $20 billion a year.

“This technology also brings us a step closer to flights from London to Sydney that last just a little longer than an on-flight film or even two-week holidays in space.

“The fact that this technology is being developed in the UK is also hugely encouraging and demonstrates the talent and expertise there is in this country for manufacturing high value and high-tech goods.”

X-51A hypersonic vehicle

The U.S. Air Force has developed a decadal technological road map for hypersonic vehicles that will help to focus the disparate development programs being pursued by America’s defense organizations.

However, anyone hoping this research will quickly find its way into civilian transports capable of whisking passengers from New York to Sydney in two hours is going to be disappointed. That’s likely to take a long time.

Aviation Week reports:

Unlike many earlier road maps, however, the new plan is measured in decadal, rather than annual, targets and appears to accommodate both the technological difficulties of the tasks and the realities of defense science and technology (S&T) spending in a time of austerity.

The Air Force defense S&T vision now calls for efforts to support development of a hypersonic strike weapon by 2020, and a penetrating, regional intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) aircraft—probably piloted—by 2030. The service intends to achieve for strike weapons a technology readiness level (TRL) of 6, the jumping off point for full-scale development, by the start of fiscal year 2018. The target for a hypersonic aircraft is the far lower TRL 4 maturity level by 2020….

The plan essentially funnels together the outcomes from a broad range of Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and other national and international efforts that have either ended, been canceled, are in process or in flux with uncertain funding. They range from the X-51A, with one more flight to go, to the canceled DARPA Blackswift, as well as related Facet combined-cycle and HiSted high-speed turbine engine technology demonstrations. Others include the US-Australian HIFiRE (hypersonic international flight research experimentation) fundamental research effort and AFRL robust scramjet.

“There were a lot of things going on at AFRL and none had critical mass. So we said, ‘Let’s pick two areas and see what progress we can make,’” says Clay. “Time-critical strike is on a pretty good pace, whereas the TBCC [turbine-based combined cycle] aircraft side is on a slower pace.” The outline plan “provides the basis for us to talk to other agencies,” he adds.

Read the full story.

India is planning to conduct the first flight trial of its Hypersonic Technology Demonstrator Vehicle (HSTDV) in the next 12 to 18 months, according to Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) officials.

The HSTDV programme aims to produce a hydrocarbon-fuelled scramjet test article capable of Mach 6-7 and autonomously guided flight. The HSTDV will pave the way for a hypersonic cruise missile and platforms that can perhaps be applied to other tasks, such as very high-speed reconnaissance.

According to DRDO sources, initial ground tests with the kerosene-fuelled scramjet (supersonic combustion ramjet) have been completed and the propulsion system is now being integrated with the air vehicle.

Read the full story.

Preliminary results from an investigation into what went wrong during the August flight indicate that a “random vibration issue” caused one of the control fins to deploy early, the X-51 program manager at the Air Force Research Laboratory, Charlie Brink, told reporters on a conference call.

“I can’t say conclusively that’s it, but it’s looking more and more like the cause,” Brink said, adding that investigators quickly ruled out a software or power malfunction as a cause of the aircraft’s break up.

The Waverider was designed to reach speeds of Mach 6 or above, six times the speed of sound and fast enough to zoom from New York to London in less than an hour.

Results from the investigation into the third aircraft’s failed test flight are expected to be complete in mid-December, Brink said.

Read the full story.

Artist conception of LEA hypersonic vehicle. (Credit: ONERA-MBDA)

Aviation Week reports on upcoming tests of Europe’s LEA hypersonic program:

Full-scale wind tunnel tests of the LEA, the European hypersonic technology demonstrator vehicle, are poised to get under way in France, setting the stage for the buildup to flight tests in Russia….

…program officials confirm that it is ready for testing under Mach 6 flight conditions in the specially modified S4 wind tunnel in the French Alpine city of Modane.

The LEA hypersonic test vehicle is in development by MBDA and the French research agency Onera, and is scheduled to be air-dropped from a Russian Tupolev Tu-22M3 “Backfire-C” supersonic bomber.

Laurent Serre, program manager for LEA flight test at Onera, says the concept will be “validated by flight tests at Mach 4 to Mach 8. Flight tests are scheduled in 2014 and 2015, and preparations are under way for full-scale free jet tests at Mach 6 in the S4 blowdown wind tunnel.”

Read the full story.

Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin. (Credit: A. Savin)

RIA Novosti has an update on Russia’s efforts to field a generation of hypersonic weapons in response to U.S. efforts to do to the same:

Russia will set up an aerospace “super-holding” company consisting of missile makers NPO Mashinostroyenie and Tactical Missiles Corporation to develop hypersonic weapon technology, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said on Wednesday….

In May, during a visit to Tactical Missiles Corporation’s NPO Raduga missile design bureau, Rogozin called on Russia’s defense industry to develop hypersonic air-breathing weapons as a future strike system.

He picked out American development work in the X-51, Falcon, HiFire and HyFly programs as examples of what he described as the perspective threat posed by U.S. hypersonic development work….

NPO Mashinostroyenie, based at Reutov just east of Moscow, has designed and produced most of the Russian Navy’s submarine-launched cruise missiles as well as satellites and other space systems, and has previously conducted extensive research into hypersonic weapons technology, including making a prototype hypersonic air-launched missile called GELA.

NPO Mashinostroyenie is also the Russian partner in the BrahMos joint venture with India to develop the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile, based on the Russian 3M55 Oniks. BrahMos has said it is developing a hypersonic successor system to its existing supersonic missiles in partnership with India.

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A successful HIFire launch. (Credit: DSTO)

CANBERRA, Australia (DSTO PR) — DSTO scientists have successfully conducted a test flight of an experimental hypersonic vehicle at the Andoya Rocket Range in Norway.

The test vehicle reached an apogee of 350 km and then achieved speeds of up to Mach 8 on descent in the experimental band which was from 20.5 km to 32 km in altitude.  All sensor and telemetry systems worked perfectly.

Scientists believe the launch could be a major step forward in the quest for hypersonic flight.

The experimental flight was undertaken as part of a joint research program, HIFiRE (Hypersonic International Flight Research Experimentation), being conducted by DSTO and the US Air Force Research Laboratory.

The program is aimed at exploring the fundamental technologies critical to the realisation of sustained hypersonic flight.

This latest launch was the fifth in a series of up to nine planned experimental flights being conducted as part of the HIFiRE program.

This week, the HIFiRE team will be presented with the prestigious von Karman Award for International Co-operation in Aeronautics at the ICAS Congress in Brisbane.

The Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) is part of Australia’s Department of Defence. DSTO’s role is to ensure the expert, impartial and innovative application of science and technology to the defence of Australia and its national interests.

Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin. (Credit: A. Savin)

In a move that has puzzled military observers, Russia’s defense czar has called for his nation to produce a hypersonic bomber within eight years:

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin repeated his appeal on Monday for Russia to develop a hypersonic aircraft for its PAK-DA long-range bomber requirement.

“I think we need to go down the route of hypersonic technology and we are moving in that direction and are not falling behind the Americans,” he said on Rossiya 24 TV. “We will use this technology when developing a new bomber.”

Long-range military aviation is vital to Russia and “the question is will we copy the Americans’ forty-year experience and create a [Northrop] B-2 analog…or will we go down a new, ultramodern technology route, looking to the horizon, and create a machine able to penetrate air defenses and carry out a strike on any aggressor,” he said.

Aerospace specialists say Rogozin’s comments are more likely to be relevant to a future air-launched missile, rather than the bomber that launches it.

Military observers have found Rogozin’s comments puzzling:

“I very much doubt it would be possible to make a hypersonic bomber by that time [2020],” he said. “And there is no point. A supersonic bomber would be useful, but not hypersonic. Probably, he is talking about a missile,” said Maxim Pyadushkin, editor of the Russia/CIS Observer aviation magazine.

“In the Soviet-era there was considerable research into high-speed weaponry, culminating in projects such as the Raduga Kh-90, which is sometimes referred to as GELA,” said Douglas Barrie, air warfare analyst at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies.

“None of the work resulted in an in-service weapon. Elements of this research could be re-invigorated as the basis for a weapon for the PAK-DA within the next 10-15 years. The PAK-DA – should the required substantial funding be made available – will be at best supersonic, if not a subsonic design with some stealth characteristics,” he added.

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“The X-51A Waverider successfully launched from an Air Force B-52 bomber over Point Mugu Naval Air Warfare Center Sea Range Aug. 14 at approximately 11:36 a.m. PST.

The X-51 safely separated from the B-52 and the rocket booster fired as planned. However after 16 seconds, a fault was identified with one of the cruiser control fins. Once the X-51 separated from the rocket booster, approximately 15 seconds later, the cruiser was not able to maintain control due to the faulty control fin and was lost.

“It is unfortunate that a problem with this subsystem caused a termination before we could light the Scramjet engine,” said Charlie Brink, X-51A Program Manager for Air Force Research Laboratory. “All our data showed we had created the right conditions for engine ignition and we were very hopeful to meet our test objectives.”

Program officials will now begin the process of working through a rigorous evaluation to determine the exact cause of all factors at play.

One of the four X-51A vehicles remains. AFRL officials have not decided when or if that vehicle will fly at this time.”

DARPA has announced a new initiative designed to culminate “in a test flight of a full-scale hypersonic X-plane (HX) in 2016″:

Tackling remaining unknowns for DoD hypersonics efforts is the focus of the new DARPA Integrated Hypersonics (IH) program. “History is rife with examples of different designs for ‘flying vehicles’ and approaches to the traditional commercial flight we all take for granted today,” explained Acting DARPA Director Kaigham J. Gabriel. “For an entirely new type of flight—extreme hypersonic—diverse solutions, approaches and perspectives informed by the knowledge gained from DoD’s previous efforts are critical to achieving our goals.”

To encourage this diversity, DARPA will host a Proposers’ Day on August 14, 2012, to detail the technical areas for which proposals are sought through an upcoming competitive broad agency announcement.

“We do not yet have a complete hypersonic system solution,” said Gregory Hulcher, director of Strategic Warfare, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics. “Programs like Integrated Hypersonics will leverage previous investments in this field and continue to reduce risk, inform development, and advance capabilities.”

The IH program expands hypersonic technology research to include five primary technical areas:  thermal protection system and hot structures; aerodynamics; guidance, navigation, and control (GNC); range/instrumentation; and propulsion.

Read the full DARPA press release below.

DARPA Investments in Extreme Hypersonics Continue

WASHINGTON, DC (DARPA PR) – DARPA’s research and development in stealth technology during the 1970s and 1980s led to the world’s most advanced radar-evading aircraft, providing strategic national security advantage to the United States. Today, that strategic advantage is threatened as other nations’ abilities in stealth and counter-stealth improve. Restoring that battle space advantage requires advanced speed, reach and range. Hypersonic technologies have the potential to provide the dominance once afforded by stealth to support a range of varied future national security missions.

Extreme hypersonic flight at Mach 20 (i.e., 20 times the speed of sound)—which would enable DoD to get anywhere in the world in under an hour—is an area of research where significant scientific advancements have eluded researchers for decades. Thanks to programs by DARPA, the Army, and the Air Force in recent years, however, more information has been obtained about this challenging subject.

“DoD’s hypersonic technology efforts have made significant advancements in our technical understanding of several critical areas including aerodynamics; aerothermal effects; and guidance, navigation and control,” said Acting DARPA Director, Kaigham J. Gabriel. “but additional unknowns exist.”

Tackling remaining unknowns for DoD hypersonics efforts is the focus of the new DARPA Integrated Hypersonics (IH) program. “History is rife with examples of different designs for ‘flying vehicles’ and approaches to the traditional commercial flight we all take for granted today,” explained Gabriel. “For an entirely new type of flight—extreme hypersonic—diverse solutions, approaches and perspectives informed by the knowledge gained from DoD’s previous efforts are critical to achieving our goals.”

To encourage this diversity, DARPA will host a Proposers’ Day on August 14, 2012, to detail the technical areas for which proposals are sought through an upcoming competitive broad agency announcement.

“We do not yet have a complete hypersonic system solution,” said Gregory Hulcher, director of Strategic Warfare, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics. “Programs like Integrated Hypersonics will leverage previous investments in this field and continue to reduce risk, inform development, and advance capabilities.”

The IH program expands hypersonic technology research to include five primary technical areas:  thermal protection system and hot structures; aerodynamics; guidance, navigation, and control (GNC); range/instrumentation; and propulsion.

At Mach 20, vehicles flying inside the atmosphere experience intense heat, exceeding 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit, which is hotter than a blast furnace capable of melting steel, as well as extreme pressure on the aeroshell. The thermal protection materials and hot structures technology area aims to advance understanding of high-temperature material characteristics to withstand both high thermal and structural loads. Another goal is to optimize structural designs and manufacturing processes to enable faster production of high-mach aeroshells.

The aerodynamics technology area focuses on future vehicle designs for different missions and addresses the effects of adding vertical and horizontal stabilizers or other control surfaces for enhanced aero-control of the vehicle. Aerodynamics seeks technology solutions to ensure the vehicle effectively manages energy to be able to glide to its destination. Desired technical advances in the GNC technology area include advances in software to enable the vehicle to make real-time, in-flight adjustments to changing parameters, such as high-altitude wind gusts, to stay on an optimal flight trajectory.

The range/instrumentation area seeks advanced technologies to embed data measurement sensors into the structure that can withstand the thermal and structural loads to provide real-time thermal and structural parameters, such as temperature, heat transfer, and how the aeroshell skin recedes due to heat. Embedding instrumentation that can provide real-time air data measurements on the vehicle during flight is also desired. Unlike subsonic aircraft that have external probes measuring air density, temperature and pressure of surrounding air, vehicles traveling Mach 20 can’t take external probe measurements. Vehicle concepts that make use of new collection and measurement assets are also being sought.

The propulsion technology area is developing a single, integrated launch vehicle designed to precisely insert a hypersonic glide vehicle into its desired trajectory, rather than adapting a booster designed for space missions. The propulsion area also addresses integrated rocket propulsion technology onboard vehicles to enable a vehicle to give itself an in-flight rocket boost to extend its glide range.

“By broadening the scope of research and engaging a larger community in our efforts, we have the opportunity to usher in a new area of flight more rapidly and, in doing so, develop a new national security capability far beyond previous initiatives,” explained Air Force Maj. Christopher Schulz, DARPA program manager, who holds a doctorate in aerospace engineering.

The IH program is designed to address technical challenges and improve understanding of long-range hypersonic flight through an initial full-scale baseline test of an existing hypersonic test vehicle, followed by a series of subscale flight tests, innovative ground-based testing, expanded modeling and simulation, and advanced analytic methods, culminating in a test flight of a full-scale hypersonic X-plane (HX) in 2016. HX is envisioned as a recoverable next-generation configuration augmented with a rocket-based propulsion capability that will enable and reduce risk for highly maneuverable, long-range hypersonic platforms.

More information regarding the August 14 Proposers’ Day is available here.