2006/10/01 by Michael K. Smart, Neal Hass, Allan Paull · 1 citation
Engineering · Mathematics · #Computational Fluid Dynamics and Aerodynamics #Gas Dynamics and Kinetic Theory #Rocket and propulsion systems research #Scramjet #Aerospace engineering #Aeronautics #Engineering #Combustor #Combustion
paper · doi:10.2514/1.20661
openalex publication_date 2006/10/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
The development of scramjet propulsion for alternative launch and payload delivery capabilities has been composed largely of ground experiments for the last 40 years. With the goal of validating the use of short duration ground test facilities, a ballistic reentry vehicle experiment called HyShot was devised to achieve supersonic combustion in flight above Mach 7.5. It consisted of a double wedge intake and two back-to-back constant area combustors; one supplied with hydrogen fuel at an equivalence ratio of 0.34 and the other unfueled. Of the two flights conducted, HyShot 1 failed to reach the desired altitude due to booster failure, whereas HyShot 2 successfully accomplished both the desired trajectory and satisfactory scramjet operation. Postflight data analysis of HyShot 2 confirmed the presence of supersonic combustion during the approximately 3 s test window at altitudes between 35 and 29 km. Reasonable correlation between flight and some preflight shock tunnel tests was observed.