Australia's own hypersonic jet project is on track for launch at Woomera late next year, having just passed a major design review.
According to Dr Sandy Tirtey, the Technical Lead and focal point of the project team, the scramjet has passed its preliminary concept development phase.
"We have another design review set for July and are aiming at the Critical Design Review in October this year," Dr Tirtey said. "After that, we start the process of manufacture, assembly, and extensive pre-flight tests."
The 1.8 metre long scramjet vehicle will be boosted by two rockets to about 340km above the Earth. After leaving the atmosphere, the scramjet will be separated from the rocket, and the fins that will keep it stable on its return through the atmosphere will be deployed and locked. On its way down, the bullet-shaped vehicle will be accelerated by gravity to Mach 8, and the experiment will take place between 32km and 27km above the Earth.
The flight will include experimental diode laser flight instrumentation and advanced high temperature materials with embedded sensors. In parallel, scramjet concepts will be tested at even greater speeds — up to Mach 14 — in the University of Queenland's world-class hypersonic ground-test facilities, and simulated with supercomputers.
This first phase of SCRAMSPACE is the largest project, "Scramjet-based Access-to-Space Systems", to be funded under the Commonwealth government’s Australian Space Research Program (ASRP). SCRAMSPACE has attracted five million dollars of ASRP funding and is also supported by nine million dollars from an international partnership consortium.
The 13-member international consortium is led by UQ, however partners in the program include four Australian universities — UQ, the University of New South Wales, the University of Adelaide, and the University of Southern Queensland; and a US university, the University of Minnesota. It also includes space agencies and research organisations from Germany, Japan and Italy; DSTO; the Australian Youth Aerospace Association; and industry partners including Brisbane firm Teakle Composites Pty Ltd, Cairns firm AIMTEK Pty Ltd, and BAE Systems.
