FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
2004
2004-09 - 0789.PDF
TECHNOLOGY HYPERSONICS GRAHAM WARWICK / WASHINGTON DC Australia plans Mach 10 test flight New series of trials to follow 2002's HyShot success will start in second half of next year and build to M14 University of Queensland conducted 2002's HyShot tests Queensland. The initiative is led by the University of Queensland's (UQ) Centre for Hypersonics, which con ducted the HyShot tests at the Woomera, South Australia range. The HyCause flight will be simi lar to HyShot in that it will be a captive-carry test, with the scramjet staying attached to the second stage of its booster rocket, but the engine will be larger, with a differ ent geometry, materials and fuel. The HyShot scramjet, built of copper by UQ itself, had two rec tangular combustion chambers, one hydrogen-fuelled and one unfuelled for reference. The new larger and more advanced scramjet will be built by Australia's defence industry. The AHI plans a series of flight tests at M10, M12 and M14 on the path to developing a satellite launcher powered by a variable- geometry scramjet capable of accel erating the vehicle from M8 to M14. After the successful M7 free flight of the scramjet-powered X-43A in March, NASA plans a M10 test of the unmanned research vehicle later this year. The X-43A achieved supersonic combustion and net thrust after release from its air-launched booster rocket. RECOVERY GRAHAM WARWICK / WASHINGTON DC Aerobrake deorbiting system could help to clean up debris in space Australia plans a new series of hypersonic flights, beginning with a Mach 10 supersonic-combustion ramjet flight test in the second half of next year. The tests will follow on from the HyShot scramjet flight from Woomera in July 2002, which reached at least M7.6 and achieved supersonic combustion in flight for the first time. The Australian Hypersonics Initiative (AHI) and US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency have signed a A$4.6 million ($3.26 million) contract to conduct the Hypersonic Collaborative Austra lian/United States Experiment (HyCause). Formed last year, the AHI includes the Defence Science and Technology Organisation, several universities and the state govern ments of New South Wales and ENGINE CONTROLS Neural nets to be tested Neural networks that could con trol aircraft engines, improving their efficiency, are to be tested later this year following expres sions of interest from propulsion system suppliers. The neural network in the engine could learn in real time how the engine is performing and make adjustments immedi ately, according to its developers at Missouri-Rolla University (UMR). The network would learn the best time to inject fuel and calculate and adjust the quantity of fuel being delivered. The arti ficial intelligence (Al) work at UMR will focus on aircraft engines next year, following fur ther Al testing this November. The building of an internal com bustion engine for the testing of the Al gets under way this week. Dr Jagannathan Sarangapani, associate professor of electrical engineering at UMR, says "neural networks are a maturing technology applicable to a vari ety of engines". Small US space firm AeroAstro is designing an aerobrake system that would allow small spacecraft to be deorbited at the end of their lives, reducing the risk of debris in low- Earth orbit (LEO). A conceptual design of the aerobrake deorbiting system (ADS) is being completed under a US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency contract. Prototype nano-satellites weighing less than 10kg could be partially powered by micro-batteries "printed" on to their structure within five years. This is the claim of researchers working on the tiny energy sys tems, which could also power future micro unmanned air vehi cles. The printed batteries' advan tages are their light weight and the fact they can conform to non-flat Ashburn, Virginia-based Aero- Astro says the self-contained aero brake could be built into satellites before launch or attached in orbit to "retire" existing spacecraft at the end of their useful lives. The sys tem could also be used in launch vehicles to deorbit the spent upper stages, the company says, eliminat ing a major source of space debris. surfaces. The rechargeable batteries can weigh just 800ug, be 9mm square and have an output of 1.3pWh/cm2. The process that prints the batteries is called direct writing and is under development by the US Naval Research Laboratory. A research facility to expand the work is being estab lished at Princeton University. Craig Arnold, a materials science assistant professor at Princeton, is Leaving a spacecraft in LEO increases the likelihood it will be struck by space debris, potentially causing catastrophic failure and generating more debris, AeroAstro says. With the number of military and commercial satellites planned for LEO, a debris mitigation solu tion is a "must have", says chief executive Dr Rick Fleeter. setting up the new laboratory, which will be operational in the middle of this year. He says: "We still have to deal with the [battery's] packaging issue, and how we pro tect the battery from the environ ment. Air is no good and tempera ture fluctuations are no good." The direct writing process uses a laser that transfers a fluid that con tains polymers and metal particles on to a substrate. POWER SYSTEMS Nano-satellites get to be powered by 'print' 26 25-31 MAY 2004 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL www.flightinternational.com
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
