Was Successfully Launched HIFIRE 2 Suborbital Vehicle
Hello reader!
It follows a note published on the day (05/14) in the
website “Parabolic Arc” noting that NASA and USAF launch HIFIRE Suborbital
Vehicle from Hawaii.
Duda Falcão
News
NASA, USAF Launch HIFiRE
Suborbital Vehicle From Hawaii
By Kathy Barnstorff
NASA Langley Research Center
May 14, 2012, at 6:15 am
A team that includes NASA and the U.S. Air Force Research
Laboratory (AFRL) is celebrating the successful launch of an experimental
hypersonic scramjet research flight from the Pacific Missile Range Facility on
the island of Kauai, Hawaii.
NASA, AFRL and Australia’s Defence Science and Technology
Organisation (DSTO) are working with a number of partners on the HIFiRE
(Hypersonic International Flight Research Experimentation Program) program to
advance hypersonic flight — normally defined as beginning at Mach 5 — five
times the speed of sound. The research program is aimed at exploring the
fundamental technologies needed to achieve practical hypersonic flight. Being
able to fly at hypersonic speeds could revolutionize high speed, long distance
flight and provide more cost-effective access to space.
During the experiment the scramjet — aboard its sounding
rocket — climbed to about 100,000 feet (30,480 meters) in altitude, accelerated
from Mach 6 to Mach 8 (4,567 to 6,090 miles per hour; 7,350 to 9,800 kilometers
per hour) and operated about 12 seconds — a big accomplishment for flight at
hypersonic speeds. It was the fourth of a planned series of up to 10 flights
under HIFiRE and the second focused on scramjet engine research.
The HIFiRE 2 scramjet research payload included a
hypersonic inward turning inlet, followed by a scramjet combustor and
dual-exhaust nozzle. More than 700 instruments on board recorded and
transmitted data to researchers on the ground. The payload was developed under
a partnership between the AFRL and NASA, with contributions from the Navy’s
detachment at White Sands Missile Range, N.M. and ATK GASL located in
Ronkonkoma, N.Y.
“This is the first time we have flight tested a
hydrocarbon-fueled scramjet accelerating from Mach 6 to Mach 8,” said NASA
Hypersonics Project Scientist Ken Rock, based at NASA’S Langley Research Center
in Hampton, Va. “At Mach 6 the inlet compression and combustion process was
designed to reduce the flow to below Mach 1 — subsonic combustion. But at Mach
8 flight the flow remained greater than Mach 1 or supersonic throughout the
engine. So this test will give us unique scientific data about scramjets
transitioning from subsonic to supersonic combustion — something we can’t
simulate in wind tunnels.”
The data collected during the execution of the HIFiRE
experiments is expected to make a significant contribution to the development
of future high-speed air-breathing engine concepts and help improve design,
modeling, and simulation tools.
The success of the three-stage launch system, consisting
of two Terrier boost motors and an Oriole sustainer motor, is another important
achievement of the HIFiRE 2 mission. The HIFiRE 2 mission, the first flight of
this sounding rocket configuration, opens the door for a new high–performance
flight configuration to support future Air Force, Navy, and NASA flight
research.
The HIFiRE team has already achieved other milestones
such as the design, assembly and extensive pre-flight testing of the hypersonic
vehicles and the design of complex avionics and flight systems. Demonstrating
supersonic combustion in flight with a hydrocarbon fueled scramjet, compared to
a hydrogen-fueled scramjet, is significant, according to researchers. While
hydrogen fuel is more reactive, hydrocarbon fuel offers many benefits,
including operational simplicity and higher fuel density so a hypersonic
vehicle can carry more fuel. This represents yet another noteworthy achievement
for the HIFiRE program, with additional test flights scheduled in the coming
months and years.
Source:
Website Parabolic Arc - http://www.parabolicarc.com/
Comment: Agora leitor os próximos vôos desse programa
HIFIRE deverão ocorrer através de foguetes brasileiros da Base de Woomera,
localizada no sul da Austrália.
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