{"id":99590,"date":"2020-09-05T14:15:55","date_gmt":"2020-09-05T14:15:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/?p=99590"},"modified":"2020-09-05T14:16:07","modified_gmt":"2020-09-05T14:16:07","slug":"the-race-to-make-planes-capable-of-flying-at-hypersonic-speed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/en\/2020\/09\/the-race-to-make-planes-capable-of-flying-at-hypersonic-speed.html","title":{"rendered":"The race to make planes capable of flying at hypersonic speed."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

“I’ve spent my career on things flying fast,” says Adam Dissel, who heads up the US operations of Reaction Engines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This British company is building engines that can operate at dizzying speeds, under conditions that would melt existing jet engines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The firm wants to reach hypersonic velocity, beyond five times the speed of sound, around 4,000mph (6,400km\/h) or Mach 5.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

See also: <\/strong>Celera, the bullet-shaped plane that could revolutionize the industry.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea is to build a high-speed passenger transport by the 2030s. “It doesn’t have to go at Mach 5. It can be Mach 4.5 which is easier physics,” says Mr Dissel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At those kinds of speeds you could fly from London to Sydney in four hours or Los Angeles to Tokyo in two hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, most research into hypersonic flight is not for civil aviation. It originates from the military, where there’s been a burst of activity in recent years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘Zoo of systems’<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

James Acton is a UK physicist who works for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington. Surveying the efforts of the US, China and Russia in hypersonic weapons he concludes that “there’s a whole zoo of hypersonic systems on the drawing board”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

See also:<\/strong> Boeing testing hand-held UV wand to sanitize cockpits, cabins.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Special materials that can withstand the extreme heat created around Mach 5, and a host of other technologies, are making hypersonic flight in the Earth’s atmosphere possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Experiments in piloted hypersonic flight date back to America’s X-15 rocket-plane of the 1960s. And Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) also re-enter the atmosphere at very high hypersonic speeds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now rival powers are striving to create weapons that can stay within the atmosphere, without needing to utilise the cooling properties of outer space, and that can be manoeuvred – unlike a static ICBM aimed at a city – towards a target that might be moving itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carrier-killers<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Military spending is driving the hypersonic push by the three big national players.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a recent Pentagon media briefing Mike White, assistant director for hypersonics in the US military, talked about development being driven by “our great power competitors and their attempts to challenge our domain dominance”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Accuracy is a major challenge for these hypersonic missiles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n