UK Research On Deployable Hypersonic Military Jet Tech
TECHDIGEST- Aero engineers is to look into how the British military forces might utilize hypersonic technology. The US, China, and Russia are all working on building missiles that can fly through the atmosphere at speeds that are many times faster than the sound barrier, making them incredibly challenging to track and shoot down.
The UK project, which was unveiled at the Farnborough Air Show, would aim to create a very quick, unmanned air vehicle that could transport cargoes over enormous distances before returning to be used once more.
Rolls-Royce, the RAF, the defense research organization DSTL, and the Oxfordshire business Reaction Engines make up the project’s team. Additionally, it has the support of the National Security Strategic Investment Fund of the UK.
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Reaction Engines’ advances in air-breathing propulsion, developed over many years for a reusable spaceplane, will be utilized by the Hypersonic Air Vehicle Experimental (HVX) Programme.
In essence, this involves mounting pre-cooler heat-exchangers on the front of a jet engine to enable it to reach speeds greater than Mach 5. (five times the speed of sound; approaching 4,000mph).
The heat produced within a gas turbine at this hypersonic speeds would start to melt parts unless they were somehow cooled or constructed of unusual materials.
“Thermal management is absolutely key to this project. Because, as you all know, the faster you go, the hotter it gets, and we’re talking about a vehicle that potentially could travel a mile a second in terms of speed and where temperatures would be in excess of 1,000 degrees centigrade,” explained Mark Thomas from Reactions Engines.
“That’s what our cooling technology allows. It takes that heat threat away and drops the temperature from 1,000 degrees, or above, to ambient in less than a blink of an eye.”
