David

Dang s3283140

Hypersonic Flight Research in Australia

On the 13th September 2010, Dr Alan Paull of the University of Queensland presented the topic of Hypersonic Research In Australia at the Engineering Australia building on North Melbourne. Dr Paull commenced with a brief introduction into the research done on scramjets. This includes over 40 years of ground-tests done at universities throughout Australia. Many universities have over this time developed elaborate facilities to simulate hypersonic airflows. The whole project begun with small- scale scramjets tested in wind tunnels and has developed into on where real rockets are launched into the skies. Dr Paull explained that it started with some experimentation on a bright idea and then moved on to someone doing the CFD calculations and realising that these bright ideas were actually possible. This idea became the HyShot program, which was launched by the University of Queensland in collaboration with many other national programs. Since 2001 the Hyshot program have been launching test rockets over the Woomera region on South Australia. The first rocket launched was HyShot I, launched in 30th October. This failed miserably as the sandbags used to hold down the launch pad were ruptured by the force from the jet engines and rocks from these sandbags ricocheted off the ground and broke the stabilising fins on the rocket, causing it to fly completely off trajectory and out of control. HyShot II was launched on 30th July 2002 and this was a much more successful launch as everything went as planned. HyShot II was almost identical to HyShot I in everyway except that it achieved a perfect flight and data could be taken from this. HyShot III launched on the 25th March 2006 reaching a peak velocity of Mach 7.5 and HyShot IV launched on the 30th March 2006 and achieved a peak velocity of Mach 7.7. Getting these rockets to launch at the extremely high speeds that were required for testing was very difficult, as it would have required a lot of power and fuel and thus made the rocket heavier. Therefore it was decided that the experimentation would not occur as the rocket took of but instead it would be done as the rocket was descending back to earth after having reached it peak height and turned around. This provided the scientists with a 5 second window when the rocket would be hypersonic for gathering data. The whole flight took from 10-15 minutes. These tests ended up revealing to scientists results that were identical to those found in the small-scale tests in the wind tunnels. This meant that their wind tunnel modelling was very accurate to actual hypersonic flight. The HyShot program has since turned into the HyCAUSE program. The first HyCAUSE was launched on the 15th June 2007. This was a 6 tonne full sized scramjet designed to operate at much higher speeds than the HyShot rockets could at Mach 10. A program called HiFIRE has also been launched recently and

David Dang s3283140 this a joint venture from both the Australian and US Defence Forces in conjunction with the University of Queensland. There is a lot of work that goes into every rocket launch, much of this is behind the scenes and are sometimes not acknowledge. There are software designers who program everything from payload to telemetry. Scientists working on telemetry are always occupied as every rocket launch is different and therefore the data they must work with is always changing. Other scientists are involved in leak tests to make sure there are no fuel leaks which could be very dangerous, vacuum testing because these rockets escape the earths atmosphere and must withstand those conditions and thermal testing because rockets travelling at such high speed will generate a lot of heat through skin friction with the hypersonic airflow. There are also people on the ground that use radar and seismic sensors to find the rockets once they have crashed back into the earth so that the data can be collected. Dr Paull finished with a few words of wisdom saying that it is very important to surround yourself with people that can help you with the design and development. He also mentioned that money is generally solves a lot of problems but you must be smart with how you spend it. Dont jut blindly follow other peoples suggestions because if their idea is so great why havent they already followed through and put it into practise.