Volume 5, Number 3     May/June 1997

  Aerospace Technology Development

Hyper-X Pushes Flight Boundaries

ASA HAS SELECTED MICROCRAFT INC. of Tullahoma, Tennessee, to lead a five-year project that will push the boundaries of aeronautics and develop new space technologies. The project, known as Hyper-X, will demonstrate hypersonic propulsion technologies. The team led by MicroCraft will fabricate a series of small, unpiloted experimental vehicles that will fly up to 10 times the speed of sound.

The Hyper-X project will demonstrate hypersonic propulsion technologies.

Hyper-X's maiden flight will be the first time a nonrocket engine has powered a vehicle in flight at hypersonic speeds, which are above Mach 5 (equivalent to about one mile per second or approximately 3,600 miles per hour at sea level). A booster rocket will carry each experimental vehicle to its flight-test speed and altitude, where it will be launched to fly under its own power.

NASA's Langley Research Center will manage the project, while NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center will conduct flight tests. Hyper-X's other industry team members are Boeing North American, Inc., Seal Beach, California; GASL, Inc., Ronkonkoma, New York; and Accurate Automation Corp., Chattanooga, Tennessee.

The first of four Hyper-X vehicles is scheduled to fly in early fiscal year 1999. The Hyper-X contract is worth about $33.4 million.

MicroCraft will provide fabrication and flight-test support for the four research vehicles and one research vehicle-to-booster adapter for mating the research vehicles to the nose of an expendable booster rocket. Each vehicle will be approximately 12 feet long, with a wing span of about five feet.

The Hyper-X will demonstrate hydrogen-powered, "air-breathing" propulsion systems that could be applied in vehicles ranging from hypersonic aircraft to reusable space launchers. A rocket carries its own oxygen for combustion. The Hyper-X will burn oxygen in air scooped from the atmosphere. Thus, air-breathing hypersonic vehicles should carry more payload and/or offer longer range than equivalent rocket-powered systems.

For more information about the Hyper-X project, contact Vince Rausch at Langley Research Center.
Call 757/864-3736, Fax: 757/864-8319, E-mail: V.L.Rausch@larc.nasa.gov
Please mention you read about it in Innovation.