There are many incredible people whom require my sincerest thanks and appreciation for helping me to achieve this completed thesis. To my supervisor Dr. Rowan Gollan. Thank you for all of your assistance, advice and patience with this project over the past year. You have given me a greater appreciation for the world of academia and the incredible research and collaborative efforts that go into solving many of the world's technical challenges. I also thank you for having faith in my ability to learn CFD, and for your assistance debugging in the later stages of the project. To my incredible parents, brother and sisters, thank you for all of your love and support, not just in the past year, but for the past 5 and a half years of University. Only 6 more months to go! Finally, to all of those incredible friends whom have provided their advice and assistance with coding, linux, CFD and hypersonic theory in general. In particular, to Thomas Keith, Britt Chambers and Daniel Smith for all your Eilmer knowledge and troubleshooting, Jeremy Moran for your continuous questioning of my CFD activities, Connor Taylor-Turner for the great chats in Melbourne around mass flux (and for being a great Housemate), Eden Maynard, Adam Jones and Sylvie Loneragan for your help with Linux, Oliver Paxton and Ryan Wilson for pulling me away from the computer for too many coffee breaks. And finally, Pierre Mariotto for coming to my seminar and your support in answering my many questions. I have learnt an incredible amount in the past 12 months using tools such as Linux and command line, developing skills in CFD and other coding languages I had never heard of before this project. It has definitely been the most rewarding component of my degree thus far.