The Promises and Challenges of Hypersonic Flight

by Kevin Bowcutt

Senior Technical Fellow and

Chief Scientist, Hypersonics

Boeing

 

Efforts to develop practical hypersonic flight and associated technologies have been ongoing since the late 1950’s. During this time, substantial advancements have been made in lightweight, high temperature structural materials and thermal protection systems; rocket, turbine, ramjet and scramjet propulsion; computational fluid dynamics and structural analysis; and multidisciplinary optimization. Taken together, these technologies are pushing us ever closer to practical, long-range hypersonic transport and routine, affordable space access.

Today, increased emphasis is being placed on developing the requisite technologies, design techniques and design concepts for hypersonic vehicles. For example, NASA, Air Force, Navy and Army centers are all investing in scramjet development. Several hypersonic X-planes are in work at NASA (with X-43A nearing flight demonstration), and hypersonic missiles and other flight demonstrations are being pursued by DARPA, the Navy and the Air Force. Also, DDR&E is pushing to establish a National Aerospace Initiative (NAI) focused on hypersonic flight, space access and space operations, while NASA is exploring next-generation reusable launch vehicles, and the Air Force hopes to acquire a Space Operations Vehicle (a military space plane) within about a decade.

 

Maturing technologies to the point where hypersonic platforms are technically viable, and hypersonic flight economically affordable, will provide a means for increasing the speed of gathering information and transporting people and materiel over global distances. Delivery of ordnance on target quicker and with increased kinetic energy and lethality will also be possible, and routine, affordable space access may be enabled as well.

 

This presentation will address the key elements of scramjet engines, how they are integrated onto airframes, and the challenges posed by the highly integrated nature of hypersonic air-breathing vehicles. The role that Multidisciplinary Design Optimization (MDO) can play in meeting these challenges will also be discussed. Also highlighted will be several NASA, Air Force and DARPA programs focused on demonstrating hypersonic technologies and integrated systems in flight, and the relationship of all these programs to DoD’s evolving National Aerospace Initiative.