The Hyshot 3 hypersonic experiment will be launched from Australia’s Woomera test range on 24 March.
Hyshot 3 is the third experiment under a UK Ministry of Defence research programme. The hypersonic vehicle was developed by Qinetiq for £1 million ($1.7 million).
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Conducted in collaboration with the University of Queensland and the Australian Hypersonic Initiative, the flight will investigate auto-ignition for supersonic combustion. Carried on a two-stage sounding rocket, the vehicle is expected to reach Mach 7-8 for 5s.
“We are looking at supersonic combustion in flight to compare it with ground tests [that were carried out in 2004],” says Qinetiq’s Hyshot 3 programme leader Rachel Owen. Hypersonics research needs more practical data, and there have been few actual flights, she says, adding that experiments like Hyshot 3 are needed to understand the differences between ground-test results and flight data.
Hyshot 3 is a stainless steel single-shock scramjet. This means the airflow into the intake experiences only one shock during its compression. The three-dimensional intake is designed to minimise heating of the air because the researchers want to understand the point at which auto-ignition occurs.
After Hyshot 3, the Sustained Hypersonic Flight Experiment (SHyFE) will take place at Woomera in 2007 or 2008. SHyFE will use a ramjet on a 5min flight reaching Mach 6 at 98,000ft (30,000m).
ROB COPPINGER / LONDON
Source: Flight International
