London, JANE'S DEFENCE WEEKLY Nov 12, 1997 via Individual
Inc.

The ability of the US Air Force to field a Mach 10 Bomber and reconnaissance aircraft capable of carrying out strategic missions from the USA has been validated by a Boeing Phantom Works study. Details were revealed last week for the first time.

Commissioned by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) with requirements input from the US Air Force, the study contract proposed an aircraft of similar weight to a B-1B bomber with an 8,500nm radius of action and a 5,000kg payload.
The craft chosen was a dual-fuel/lifting body design with a ramjet engine powered by standard JP7 kerosene for flight up to M4 to 5.

At that point, the transition to scramjet (supersonic combustion ramjet) propulsion would begin, using hydrogen to accelerate the aircraft to its Mach10 cruise speed. Using JP7 for the slower speed part of the flight regime would allow the aircraft, flown by a crew of two via a 'virtual vision' system, to refuel in mid-air from a KC-10 tanker or even to land and refuel at friendly bases outside the USA.


Although not set to translate into any near-term development programme-OFFICIALLY, AT LEAST- the Phantom Works study is representative of a growing interest in hypersonics in the USA and a number of other countries.

The first application in the USA is likely to be a scramjet-powered air-launched missle with a M7 to 8 cruise speed, designed to destroy mobile ballistic missile launchers from stand-off ranges of 1000km or more. Flight time would be cut to under 10 minutes, reducing the ability of the launcher to 'scoot and hide' after detection.

In the USAF's Hyper-sonic Technology (HyTech) programme, the Wright Laboratory's Aero Propulsion and Power Directorate at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is seeking to ground-run a flight-type liquid hydrocarbon (JP7 fuel) scramjet engine by 2003 that could be further developed into a deployable propulsion system.

It is expected that HYTech will initially develop into a powerplant for a hypersonic attack missile small enough for three to be carried by an F-15E or F/A-18E/F fighter. If a joint requirement can be agreed by the USAF and US Navy, its in-service date could be about 2010.

HyTech evolved out of the X-30 National Aero-Space Plane (NASP), a NASA/USAF/ industry programme started in 1986 with the aim of developing a single-stage-to-orbit air vehicle, variants of which would be capable of roles spanning reconnaissance and strike to commercial operations. Following a $2 billion expenditure, NASP was cancelled in 1993 after the programme ran into massive technical and funding problems.

Though the NASP project resulted in failure-mainly because it sought to conquer and integrate too many cutting-edge technologies within one programme-it yielded enough positive results in key areas for follow-on work to continue.


The Phantom Works Mach 10 aircraft study, commissioned two years ago when it was still under McDonnell Douglas ownership, was, along with HyTech, one such spin-off. Another was Hyper-X (Jane's Defence Weekly29 January), a NASA project to test a scramjet at speeds between M5 to 10 on a subscale flight vehicle boosted to altitude on a Pegasus launcher. The first flight is expected in mid-1999.

Hyper-X, which was designed by the Phantom Works, but will be built under a NASA contract by Micro Craft of Tullahoma, Tennessee, uses the same body shape as the Mach 10 aircraft, according to George Orton, hypersonics programme manager at the Boeing Phantom Works in St Louis.

Following the NASA cancellation, the key to the successful deployment of a family of hypersonic military aircraft is to adopt a stage-by-stage development programme, NASA and USAF officials believe, conquering each technology area in turn, before integrating them all- engine, materials, avionics and airframe - into a single full-scale air vehicle.

While good progress is being made, officials worry about the number of separate, often over-lapping programmes under way in the USA. Organisations working on hypersonics include the USAF, NASA, the US Navy and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. In several cases, each organisation is working on different hypersonics research initiatives.

This work, sources added, does not include the wealth of activity believed to have been under way for decades, under CLASSIFIED or 'BLACK' auspices, into ultra-high speed military air vehicles.

>

All bold text is my addition. The above article is posted on a bulletin board that no longer is available online. I happend to save it the other night thankfully and tidied it up and added bold text to highlight certain aspects.

Boeing is working on manned hypersonics. Nice! So that is a cockpit on that model the Boeing hypersonic chiefs holding.

Glidng would not really be an accurate description of what large, unpowered aircraft do on return to earth...I am assuming an unpowered glide back to base for a hypersonic aircraft like Hyper-Soar.

[edit on 8-7-2008 by JZizka]

heard the one about the hypersonic project that India, Russia, israel and the United kingdom are working on (India is main prog. lead)?.

Heres some really tasty pics with suprising high amount of detail and disclosure of their efforts so far. The email said these are from a 2007 show, so about a year old. I am very suprised they shared so much out in the open at all, considering how 'black' the USA is treating its hypersonic research.

First off the actual airframe mock up pics.









...and the development partners pics



So all in all a very nice set up by the Indians and their partners. Amazing how they are advancing really well here, and yet their LCA was such a disaster. maybe its because of all the combined effort is paying dividends.

Their future ideas for a one stop ground to space plane look startlingly like the FALCON!

(Will post that pic in a second as imageshack is down...)

First off, the threads not just about PDWE craft, but almost all and every thing that could either be a future platform, or a fore runner of what we have on the design board or in the air.

As for a TR3-B - I know so little its not even funny. However, plasma stealth MHD powered craft is some thing I looked at, but spinning rings of liquid metal? now thats a new one to me......

nake13, hi, there is a technology called "active glow discharge plasma" that would get around this problem. It basically uses a flowing plasma over the hull to create a slipstream, like a bar of soap cutting through water. It ionises the air around it and shoves it out of the way. can be used as a form of priopulsion too and the b2 uses something similar to aid in getting it airbourne and to achieve good stealth. a craft fitted with this tech would reduce friction heating of the hull considerably while also reducing drag for more efficient hypersonic travel.

[edit on 24-7-2008 by gh03t]

Originally posted by gh03t
nake13, hi, there is a technology called "active glow discharge plasma" that would get around this problem. It basically uses a flowing plasma over the hull to create a slipstream, like a bar of soap cutting through water. It ionises the air around it and shoves it out of the way. can be used as a form of priopulsion too and the b2 uses something similar to aid in getting it airbourne and to achieve good stealth. a craft fitted with this tech would reduce friction heating of the hull considerably while also reducing drag for more efficient hypersonic travel.

Yep, just as I showed in the thread.

MagnetoHydroDynamic propulsion.