• Hyshot Scramjet
• Hyshot Scramjet

1. The HyShot Flight Program is an experiment designed to develop a correlation between pressure measurements made of supersonic combustion in The University of Queensland's T4 shock tunnel, and that which is observed in flight.
2. The HyShot supersonic combustion flight experiments were achieved by placing the scramjet on the tip of a two-stage sounding rocket. During its descent, the second stage remained attached to the scramjet module to guarantee aerodynamic stability.

Woomera - Jul 18, 2002 - This week's unsuccessful Japanese aeronautical experiment at Woomera, Australia, is unlikely to cause delays to the international HyShot program to test a scramjet in flight for the first time in the world. The HyShot™ IV experimental scramjet test has been conducted today at the Woomera range, 500km north of Adelaide, South Australia at about 1.10pm local time (CDT). “The rocket launch looked as expected. We had another clean liftoff,” Associate Professor Michael Smart of the UQ HyShot team said. Woomera - Jul 18, 2002 - This week's unsuccessful Japanese aeronautical experiment at Woomera, Australia, is unlikely to cause delays to the international HyShot program to test a scramjet in flight for the first time in the world.

Saturday, March 25, 2006

A supersonic jet engine known as a 'scramjet,' which could substantially reduce air travel time has been tested at Woomera, in South Australia's far north. An international team launched the Terrier-Orion rocket carrying the hypersonic scramjet—an oxygen-sucking supersonic combustion ramjet engine. The rocket took the prototype aircraft to an altitude of 314km (195 mi) before crashing ten minutes later, a spokeswoman for the Hyshot program said. A supersonic boom was felt across the Woomera test range seconds after the jet took off.

The Queensland-led HyShot III experiment uses a scramjet engine developed by UK company, QinetiQ. Travelling at 8,000 km/h (~5000 mph), or ten times the speed of a conventional jet, and almost eight times the speed of sound (Mach 8), the rocket turned and powered back to Earth some 400 km (250 mi) down the range. The scientists are hoping the scramjet kicked into action during a six-second window shortly before impact.

The advantage of a scramjet is that once it is accelerated to about Mach 4 by a conventional jet engine or booster rocket, it can fly at hypersonic speeds, possibly as fast as Mach 15, without carrying heavy oxygen tanks, as conventional rockets do.

Team leader Professor Allan Paul says that the flight went well, but that it will take several months to analyse the collected data. He told the media it was too soon to tell if the $2 million experiment had been a success.

Another HyShot team member Michael Smart said the flight followed the nominal trajectory and impacted 400 km (250 mi) from its launch pad. Dr Smart said that radar tracking data showed the experiment had gone to plan.

Professor Paull said scramjet-powered passenger jets were still a long way off, but it might be possible to have a scramjet-powered vehicle within the next decade. He says the team is happy with the result so far.

NASA set the speed record for a jet-powered aircraft in [November 2004] during the third and final flight of the experimental X-43A scramjet project.

Two HyShot scramjet flights had previously been made—one on 30 October 2001 and another on 30 July 2002. Supersonic combustion was achieved on the second flight. HyShot IV launch is planned for 28 March.

Sources

Hyshot Scramjet

• Paul Carter. 'Super jet engine trial excites boffins' — News.com, March 25, 2006

• 'Scramjet team 'happy' after Woomera flight' — The australian Broadcasting Corporation, March 25, 2006

• 'HyShot scramjet experiment blasts off in South Australian desert' — Centre for Hypersonics, University of Queensland, March 25, 2006

• 'Hyshot Images' — University of Queensland, March 25, 2006

• 'Faster Than a Speeding Bullet: Guinness Recognizes NASA Scramjet' — NASA press release, June 20, 2005
  

Gardner, Anthony Donald (2007)HyShot scramjet testing in the HEG. Dissertation, University of Queensland, Australia.

Hyshot Scramjet

Full text not available from this repository.

Abstract

In this study, CFD and shock tunnel experiments have been performed, these then being compared with the flight test data from the HyShot II flight. Two new conditions for the HEG were designed analytically and refined using the one-dimensional Lagrangian code L1D and experimentally-determined efficiency coefficients, allowing the definition of a new condition with a maximum of two tests in the HEG. A new Mach 7.8 contoured nozzle was calibrated and a new piston with a braking system to prevent reverse movement after diaphragm burst was designed and tested. A wind tunnel model was developed for the HEG from the HyShot flight test model, which recreated the internal geometry at a scale of 1:1. The model was split into two engines, which were instrumented with pressure transducers and thermocouples. A fuel injection system injected cold gaseous hydrogen into the flow through portholes in the wall of one combustion chamber. The model was tested at various angles of attack and equivalence ratios and testing with a nitrogen freestream was used to quantify the effect of fuel injection without combustion.

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