Message posted by Peter Merlin on May 26, 2009 at 14:46:58 PST:
You will notice that he says of the Mach 12 global flyer, "We almost built it." That has, unfortunately been the fate of many hypersonic vehicle designs that never got beyond the "paper airplane" stage. Boost-glide vehicles such as SWERVE have provided data in the Mach 12 to 14 range and the space shuttle orbiter routinely experiences Mach 25 speeds but most advanced air-breathing cruisers and transatmospheric vehicle concepts have been prematurely terminated. I recent years there has been a resurgence of interest in hypersonics (X-43A, X-51, Blackswift, etc.). For a good overview of the situation, I recommend reading "The History of Hypersonics: or, Back to the Future - Again and Again" by Dr. Richard P. Hallion. I think you can find it online by searching for AIAA paper 2005-0329. It is 40 pages long and there is also a PowerPoint presentation under the same title.
In Reply to: Re: Aeronautical Engineer Dr. Paul Czysz, Mach 12? posted by TheSkunkWorks on May 26, 2009 at 11:41:09 PST:
Replies: