Hypersonic Flight

[Racoon]

Hypersonic flight will be a really cool and fast way to get around in the distant future, but the reality of hypersonic flight is already here....for weapons that kill people.

 

The engineering is very intriguing.

How far off are humans away from Hypersonic commercial flights?

 

Hypersonic weapons projects to begin test flights - space - 04 January 2007 - New Scientist Space

 

Ultrafast missiles designed to strike targets around the globe will be the first technologies to use hypersonic flight...

 

For decades, researchers have dreamed of building hypersonic aircraft that could whip around the world in just a few hours. But the first fruits of their labour will instead be compact, long-range missiles that can be launched at enemy targets at the same high speeds.

 

All are based on so-called scramjets (supersonic combustion ramjets), which mix fuel with air and ignite the mixture as it flows through the engine at supersonic speeds. This means the vehicles do not need to carry oxygen to ignite their fuel, as rockets do. And unlike jet plane engines, which use fans to compress air, they use no moving parts – the shape of their air intakes sucks in and compresses air at supersonic speeds.

 

The engine for the X-51A uses the gas flow system tested in the X-43A and is being built by US firm Pratt and Whitney. That design uses a rectangular intake, which compresses the air and generates a shock wave that pushes the air through the engine vertically.

 

Around the World in 80 Days,

Racoon

[andyappan]

Around the World in 80 Days,

Racoon

Around the World in 1 Day,

appan

GLOBAL FERRY

3000 kmph[ 1650 kts] Ferry 300 GRT 250 Pass, 22,500 hp / 150 Lit Engine

use 600 Lit Fuel/hour .Fare $ 600 / seat in 24 hours

>

SEA MISSILE 5,10 MACH POSSIBLE

AIR BREATHING , RIDING ON WATER SURFACE.

>

[gribbon]

Is there any chance that these will ever become economical enough for civilian use?

[andyappan]

FERRY , FERRY NOT FLIGHT

Economy lies at $ 600 / Seat to go around the WORLD in 24 hrs[]

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Design is based on Air bearing,Andy Engine,Jet,Fuel design, NEW propulson []

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other data are in previous paras[]

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500 T 3000 KMPH 50,000 HP, 333 Lit ENGINE []

USE 1333 Lit FUEL OIL / HOUR[]

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[Roadam]

Anyone heard about SKYLON and LAPCAT?

Reaction Engines Limited :: LAPCAT

[andyappan]

Tell me more

[silverslith]

I wonder whether density is the cause of the difficult heating problem with transorbital flight.

If for example you built a diamond skin airship saucer shaped for arguements sake, and it had an aerodynamic loading of eg/ 1/100 a conventional design: wouldn't it be able to fly in 1/100 of the air density at the same speed and far lower /surface area heating effect. Could it be possible to fly up to orbital speed in far less dense air?

Breathing air and using reaction mass for thrust are problems. I've checked the theoretical potential of superconductors in using the earth (or sun or whatever) as reaction mass via their magnetic fields. It turns out that 10kg of superconducting ceramic wire could produce 100kg or so of leverage off the earths magnetic field. Appliable in any direction at right angles to the earths field.

this would potentially also share the weight of the craft in exit/reentry from the atmosphere. Nuclear power would give you a very able spacecraft with no need to carry reaction mass and the possibility of being able to touch down and take off of gas giants like jupiter. The big mag fields of the gas giants could provide awsome acceleration potential. An unmanned craft could haul down on the field to orbit with negative 100g as it accelerated to the limit and slingshoted away to its destination.