Test involved a mach-busting missile flying eight times the speed of sound.
Commercialised flight faster than five times the speed of sound has been brought one step closer today, thanks to the Defence Science and Technology Group (DST Group) and the US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) after another successful experimental hypersonic flight at Woomera Test Range.
Aerospace engineering researchers from University of Queensland, along with industry and government partners, completed the test flight at Woomera in South Australia.
UQ Chair of Hypersonic Propulsion Professor Michael Smart said the triumph advanced the realisation of hypersonic flight in commercial and defense sectors.
“Hypersonic flight has the potential to revolutionise air travel, making it faster and cheaper to travel around the world and into space,” said Professor Smart.
“The experimental flight, designated as ‘HIFiRE 4’, was part of the HIFiRE Program conducted by the Defence Science and Technology (DST) Group and US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), partnering with UQ, Boeing, and BAE Systems.”
Woomera was selected as the test site because of its location, vast area and ability to support continuous telemetry collection during the flight. This experiment helps Defence and its partners to understand controlled flight at hypersonic speed.
A scramjet engine burns a combination of fuel and oxygen from the atmosphere in the engine's combustion chamber. Like its cousin the ramjet, a scramjet sucks in air but the difference is the scramjet lowers the air to subsonic speeds, allowing for greater engine efficiency and hypersonic speeds. Unlike conventional missiles and airplanes, scramjet-equipped vehicles need a carrier vehicle, like an Orion rocket, to boost them to high speeds where the scramjet can take over.
Past HiFiRE experiments have been brief forays into hypersonic travel. A 2012 test involving NASA took HiFiRE from Mach 6 to Mach 8, where it flew for twelve seconds. The test also failed to keep incoming oxygen at subsonic speeds, indicating the program still needed some work. At the time, NASA claimed it was the second of a planned 10 flights. News.com.au claims there have been at least three previous tests prior to this month's test, with a mockup of the configuration for test #5 published in an undated paper on the NASA web site.
The data collected during the experiment will help researchers to better understand controlled flight at hypersonic speed.
“Fundamental research conducted over many years by UQ’s Centre for Hypersonics, within the School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering, has made a significant contribution to this and previous HIFiRE flights,” Professor Smart said.
UQ’s support of HIFiRE was partially funded by Boeing and the Queensland State Government through the National and International Research Alliances Program.
The last mention of HiFiRE on the NASA web site is five years old. A statement by the Australian Minister for Defence fails to mention NASA, so the space agency may have exited the program and it may now be entirely in U.S. Air Force hands.
Minister for Defence, Senator Marise Payne, said by understanding hypersonic flight, the Australian Defence Force would be in a better position to respond to future threats.
Minister Payne said the HIFiRE team had achieved significant milestones, including design, assembly and pre-flight testing of the hypersonic vehicles, and design of complex avionics and flight systems.