A hypersonic puzzle.

Boeing frontiers Pdf

Page 30.

Thats just beautiful. Look at how they went from an X-43A type of shape, to a more streamlined, down to that beautiful model.

Heres the pic.



Beautiful. Boeing sure as heck have pulled that magic little number out of the hat... I like it.. but, does it look familiar to any one ? as it sure is ringing bells in my mind...brb.

A bit off topic but a beauty of a pic available at high resolution of the X-51C system under going antenna testing.

X-51 testing

Looks beautiful, and its good to see that the technology is maturing and marching forward towards a deployable system.

[edit on 22-6-2008 by Dan Tanna]

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.

For some years now, the Air Force has been exploring a wide range of platformoptions for next-generation long-range strike capabilities. In 1999, for example, Air Force engineers at Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio explored the following speed options for a “global mission vehicle” whose goal was specified as being able “to respond quickly to anywhere in the world from the continental United States (CONUS), while being highly survivable”: subsonic (Mach 0.85), Mach 2.4 (the maximum for aluminum structure), Mach 4.0 (themaximum for uncooled titanium honeycomb), Mach 7 (the maximum for endothermic hydrocarbon fuels), Mach 11 (the maximum for hydrogen fuel),and orbital (“Mach 26”).63

Similarly, the web site for the Air Vehicles
Directorate at the Air Force Research Laboratory currently displays no less
than eight long-range strike concepts, including: a stand-off “missileer,”64 a subsonic penetrator along the lines of the B-2, low- and high- supersonic
manned penetrators (around Mach 2 and 4, respectively), a hypersonic vehicle (Mach 5-plus), and an orbital space operations vehicle that would release common aero vehicles (CAVs)—maneuverable reentry vehicles able to dispense guided munitions over the target.

CSBA online

Nice for them to furnish us with the figures for the max limits for each of their emerging technologies.

Who would of thought that a budget review paper would give out so much information ? Not me thats for sure.

Just a thought: in 2008, 42% of the USAF budget will go on classified technology... thats huge. 18 BILLION DOLLARS on classified tech. Nice.

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...)

reply to post by Dan Tanna

this might be a bit outa date message but that craft pictured does not show a PDWE, it is a scramjet concept. PDWE's detonate explosive reactions to the rear of the craft to create motion, they do not use air! that massive air scoop is clearly a (hypersonic maybe) scramjet intake. Im a grad aerospace engineer, ive seen designs like that b4. nasa did one too, did very high mach too. unmanned obviously

reply to post by Dan Tanna


tell ya what i find interesting, this mythical TR3B, maybe i dont buy into it, but the specifics of its operation reguarding the magnetic field disruptor?? basically a spinning ring of mercury plasma. ive seen experiments by independent organisations that have produced results with mercury rings that reduce mass/weight. reduce those and u r reducing inertia. and if u reduce those u reduce g force. seems like the way to go for a manned hypersonic craft?? what do u think?? bear in mind, even if the TR3B is bull, its a helluva coincidence that the MFD works the way it says, dont u think

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......

reply to post by Dan Tanna

The propulsion technology may be available to achieve the quoted performance figures i.e MACH 7.88,however,I wonder if materials technology has kept pace as the frictional forces generated at such a high MACH Number would result in temperatures well in excess of any previously known airframe materials.

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 nake13
reply to post by Dan Tanna

 

The propulsion technology may be available to achieve the quoted performance figures i.e MACH 7.88,however,I wonder if materials technology has kept pace as the frictional forces generated at such a high MACH Number would result in temperatures well in excess of any previously known airframe materials.

There are certain technologies that can and are applied to the craft that have been developed since the late 1950's / early 1960's. McDonell aircraft corp got over this particular hurdle as I showed in this thread.

As for hypersonic plasma 'aerospike' devices, that too was 'solved ' in the late 1950's.

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.

reply to post by Dan Tanna

Very Interesting thread. Here is a little mind-arrestor for you-----the above-mentioned spinning mercury device brought to mind something I have been intrigued by for more than twenty years since I read about it in the Ayurvedas of ancient India. Thousands of years ago in ancient India there existed aerial vehicles (Vimanas)of various sizes and configurations capable of transoceanic travel and high speed which were said to be powered in lift and cruise by"mercury motors" which contained heated, spinning Mercury! Shouldn't be too hard to find and investigate on the internet...

I have read that in recent years there has been a concerted effort in India and perhaps Russia and ? to seriously research the many astonishing claims of science and technology in the Vedas.

reply to post by Anonymous ATS



Thats an area where I would gladly look at, thank you for your interest and I hope you can drop in more.

reply to post by Dan Tanna


Dan, you mentioned you might have evidence of two "real world" black project airframes that are still classified. Just wondering if you could elaborate on what those airframes might be?

reply to post by SneakyPete


dantanna was banned a while back , he was a hoaxer, so don't believe a word he typed