Supersonic research lifts off- at Mach 10

Australian and US defence interests have signed a $4.6 million contract to conduct a controlled scramjet experiment at Mach 10, or 10 times the speed of sound, at Woomera next year. UNSW at Australian Defence Force Academy is a partner in the project.

Scramjets are air-breathing supersonic combustion ramjet engines. They are set to make possible two-hour flights from Sydney to London and revolutionise the launch of small space payloads, such as communications satellites. The collaborative two-nation experiment is expected to provide a major boost to the fledgling technology.

Partners in the project are the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Australian Hypersonics Initiative (AHI) represented by the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO), the University of Queensland, the University of New South Wales at the Australian Defence Force Academy (UNSW@AFDA), and the Australian National University, together with the State Governments of South Australia and Queensland.

The flight experiment will be primarily designed and flown by staff at The University of Queensland. Key support in both the design and post-flight analysis stages will be provided by the Canberra based node of the AHI, which includes hypersonics researchers at UNSW@ADFA.

Following from their successful computational involvement in the 2002 HyShot II flight experiment, the team plans to carry out computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and finite element modelling (FEM) calculations to provide design data on the aerodynamic stability and thermal/structural performance of the scramjet. Post-flight analysis will be assisted by combustion CFD calculations such as those from the HyShot II campaign.

Item provided courtesy of UNSW