Fifty years of hypersonics: where we've been, where we're going

Abstract

Hypersonic flight has been with us since 22 September 1963, when Robert M. White flew the North American X-15 at 4520 mph at an altitude of 354; 200 ft-a Mach number of 6.7! This remarkable achievement was accomplished over six decades due to intensive research and development by a large number of scientists and engineers. In spite of that momentous achievement, designers have found the hypersonic environment to be harsh and non-forgiving. New programs since the 1960s have often uncovered the unknown unknowns, usually the hard way-early flights of new systems have often revealed problems of which the designers were unaware. Such problems include: the ineffectiveness of the body flap for the Space Shuttle Orbiter, the viscous/inviscid interactions produced by the umbilical fairings that damaged the conical section tile protection system of the Gemini Capsule, and the shock/shock interaction that damaged the X-15A-2 when it carried the hypersonic ramjet experiment. In order to continue to make advances in hypersonic flight a sustained and visionary effort is essential to generate required knowledge and technology. In order to better prepare for future developments in hypersonic flight, this article reviews the advances made within the past 50 years and then looks into the future, not just for new technological developments, but for new ways of thinking about the unknown challenges that lie ahead.

Crystallographic oxide phase identification of char deposits obtained from space shuttle Columbia window debris

“…Depending on flight Mach number and mission profile, vehicles that fly at hypersonic speeds may be exposed to severe aero-thermodynamic environments [23]. Because various Ti-based alloys and composites are among the top candidate advanced materials used for reentry environments [24][25], it is imperative that combustibility and ignition of aerospace metals be appreciated.…”

Numerical Investigation on Flame Stabilization in DLR Hydrogen Supersonic Combustor with Strut Injection

“…With the increasing interest in high-speed reusable space vehicles, much effort has been devoted to the development of hypersonic air-breathing propulsion systems (Bertin and Cummings, 2003). Due to its promising performance at flight Mach numbers higher than seven, the supersonic ramjet (also known as scramjet) fueled with hydrogen has been extensively studied over the past decades (Cecere et al, 2011).…”

Conceptual design and aerodynamic evaluation of hypersonic airplane with double flanking air inlets

“…The completely integrated design of the airframe and propulsion system is generally adopted for the air-breathing hypersonic vehicles, however, as both the aerodynamic performance for the airframe and the engine intake/exhaust requirements shall be taken into account simultaneously, the design difficulty increased dramatically [1,[4][5][6]. As far as we know, the current aerodynamic design for hypersonic vehicles is mainly for the demonstration vehicles which focused on minimizing resistance and the optimal matching between airframe and engine, and the forebody and engine inlet integrated design is the key issues for the configuration design [7,8].…”

“…The ventral inlet layout is the most commonly used layout for hypersonic vehicles, the U.S. X-43 and X-51 etc. demonstration hypersonic vehicles are all designed with ventral inlets [1,4,5,7,8,15,16]. It is characterized with engine mounted on the abdomen, and the forebody is designed as a waverider or lifting-body which not only provides high-quality airflow for the engine inlet but also generate great lift force to improve the lift-to-drag ratio and pitching-balance performances of the vehicle [17][18][19][20][21].…”