The Australian Hypersonics Initiative (AHI) says test flights for the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), planned for this quarter, have been delayed to March 2006.
The flights, which include a Mach 10 scramjet experiment at Australia’s Woomera test range, form part of the A$4.6 million ($3.4 million) Hypersonic Collaborative Australian/US Experiment (HyCause) agreement between DARPA and AHI.
“The test flights were originally planned for the second half of this year, but this has now slipped to the end of next March due primarily to lack of availability of the Woomera range,” says Allan Paull, AHI technical lead and University of Queensland professor. DARPA will wait to see the outcome of the test flights before it decides where to go with the HyCause programme, he says.
Two of the three payloads for the HyCause flights are ready and the third is being manufactured. HyCause is as a follow-on the successful HyShot programme, in which a scramjet reached a speed of M7.6. The tests use a two-stage Terrier-Orion rocket to boost the payload.
EMMA KELLY/PERTH
Source: Flight International