The University of Queensland says last week's second flight test of its HyShot air-breathing supersonic-combustion ramjet (scramjet) engine from Woomera in Australia was successful, although analysis of telemetry to determine whether the flight achieved its hypersonic goal could take up to a month.
The first test flight ended in failure after the control fins separated from the Terrier Orion booster during the first minute (Flight International, 25 June-1 July).
In the latest test the scramjet was carried on a Terrier sounding rocket and completed a 10min sub-orbital flight to a maximum altitude of 300km (186 miles). After booster and protective nose-cone separation, the scramjet re-entered the atmosphere in a near vertical descent. Between 35km and 23km altitude, while descending at Mach 7.6, hydrogen was supplied to the scramjet, allowing supersonic combustion to begin. Data from the experimental vehicle was transmitted to three ground stations during the flight, before it crashed 314km from the launch site as planned.
The aim of the test flight was to develop a correlation between pressure measurements made of supersonic combustion in the University of Queensland's T4 shocktunnel and those observed in flight. The HyShot two-dimensional engine geometry was designed to best compare with the shocktunnel measurements, and is not designed to produce net thrust. Developing an engine with net positive thrust will be the subject of future flight trials.
Source: Flight International