Robust Scramjet Program

THE SERIES of experimental aircraft, funded by NASA and the U.S. Air Force under a joint project dubbed X-43C, will be powered by a novel engine that sucks in oxygen from the atmosphere and combines it with jet fuel to propel the vehicles to speeds faster than 100 kilometers per minute (3,700 mph). The X-43C fleet will be built by Allied Aerospace Industries, the Tullahoma, Tenn.-based contractor that built the X-43A experimental vehicles. By drawing in oxygen from the atmosphere, so-called supersonic ramjet engines like those being developed by NASA and the Air Force have the potential to dramatically lighten the load of future launch vehicles.

X 51 Scramjet

More than one-fourth of the space shuttle’s weight at liftoff, or about 600,000 kilograms (1.3 million pounds), is the liquid oxygen that is needed to combust the 100,000 kilograms (220,000 pounds) of liquid hydrogen the vehicle’s three main engines burn on the way to orbit. Eliminating the need to carry so much liquid oxygen aloft would go a long way, NASA officials say, toward helping to blur the line between launch vehicles and aircraft. “We think it is a very important leap-frog technological capability that will help with affordability, safety and so on for future space lift requirements,” said John “Roe” Rogacki, NASA’s director of space transportation technology. LIGHTENING THE LOAD While air-breathing engines are as old as the jet airplane, they have yet to find their way into hypersonic applications like rockets, despite more than 30 years of research. By perfecting so-called supersonic ramjet engines — and thus eliminating the need to carry tanks of liquid oxygen aloft — NASA sees the potential to dramatically lighten a launcher’s load at liftoff.

But supersonic ramjet engines, or scramjets, may be only part of the solution. NASA is also working on complementary propulsion systems, like a high-speed turbine engine, that would power future launch vehicles from zero to around Mach 5 before a scramjet takes over and propels the vehicle to speeds as high as Mach 15 or greater needed to reach space. NASA’s long-term hypersonics technology roadmap, closely coordinated with the U.S. Air Force, lays out at least four distinct flight demonstration efforts on the way to building a large-scale demonstrator capable of taking off from a runway and hitting Mach 15, according to Paul Moses, NASA’s X-43C program manager. Looking even further down the road, Moses said, NASA could be ready by 2025 or so to field a fully reusable air breathing launcher. While the Air Force is also interested in low-cost, reusable launchers, it could see benefits from its hypersonics investment somewhat sooner.

Ron Sega, director of defense research and engineering at the Pentagon, told an industry audience in July that hypersonics research could yield a swift-moving, air-breathing cruise missile within the next decade. But there is a lot of technology development to come before air-breathing launchers, or even hypersonic cruise missiles, become reality. Most of what NASA knows about scramjet engines has been learned either in wind tunnels or from computer simulations, Moses said. In fact, NASA has yet to successfully flight test a single scramjet engine, but it has not been for a lack of trying.

RECOVERING FROM SETBACK The X-43C program is meant to serve as a follow-on to Hyper-X, a separate flight research project that suffered a major setback in June 2001 when the first of three vehicles spun out of control shortly after launch. NASA plans to resume the Hyper-X project, also known as X-43A, in December with the launch of the first of two remaining vehicles. If successful, NASA will get about 10 seconds of engine data from each of the remaining X-43A vehicles before they exhaust their cryogenic fuel and glide to a controlled splashdown off the California coast. Like X-43A, the X-43C vehicles will also be boosted to an initial velocity on an air-launched rocket and operate under its own power for only a short time before gliding into the sea. But the slightly larger X-43C will carry more fuel (jet propellant instead of hydrogen) and get about five full minutes of powered flight before its more robust engine is shut down, Moses said. During that brief but important burst of powered flight, NASA hopes to show that the scramjet can produce enough thrust to boost the vehicle from Mach 5 to Mach 7.

To put that into perspective, the SR-71 Blackbird is still the world’s fastest aircraft able to sustain a cruising speed of Mach 3-plus, or more than 3,000 kilometers per hour (1,875 mph). To survive the intense heat the X-43C’s scramjet will see at such blazing speeds, Moses said, it was necessary to use its fuel to cool the engine. Because the X-43A’s engine has no cooling system, if left to run, it would overheat and begin to melt in less than a minute, he said. Lowell Keel, Allied Aerospace Industries’ program manager for both efforts, said the X-43C will look like a larger version of the X-43A but with a flatter nose and a deeper throat to gulp down all the additional oxygen it will need for its much longer flight.

Keel expects the X-43C to come in about 1.2 meters (4 feet) longer from nose to tail than the 3.6-meter-long (12-foot-long) X-43A. The fully autonomous X-43C will also take advantage of many of the same subsystems used for its X-43A predecessor, such as the thermal protection system and avionics, but with minor tweaks, he said.

“This is first and foremost a propulsion experiment, and we want to keep it focused on proving out the engine and doing it with as low of risk as we possibly can,” he said. Keel said Allied Aerospace and its industry partners, Boeing Phantom works and Pratt & Whitney, are working to deliver the first non-reusable X-43C for flight testing in 2007.

If all goes well, he said, the remaining two vehicles would be flown off over the following year and a half. NASA hopes before then to secure funding for the next two steps on the way to a large-scale demonstrator.

First up, Moses said, would be a joint effort with the Air Force to build and fly a reusable vehicle that would have both a high-speed turbine engine and a robust scramjet similar to the one in development for X-43C. The proposed vehicle, dubbed the Reusable Combined Cycle Flight Demonstrator, Moses said, would over a series of test flights demonstrate the ability to transition from a subsonic air-launch to powered flight up to Mach 7. The last piece of the puzzle, Moses said, would fall in place with the proposed X-43D, a fleet of vehicles, most likely expendable, designed to hit Mach 15. There is a lot of work to be done between now and then. But Moses and Keel say the payoff could be tremendous. “We’re trying to use air-breathing engines to do some of the same things that we’ve typically used rockets for,” Keel said.

Contents. USA's Programs X-15 When the second aircraft (piloted by Jack McKay) crashed on flight 74, it was damaged but survived well enough to be rebuilt. Rebuilt it as the X-15-A2. Among other things, one of the changes was provisions for a dummy scramjet to test if wind tunnel testing was correct. Unfortunately, on the final flight of the X-15-A2 (flight 188), the shock waves sent out by the scramjet at Mach 6.7 caused extremely intense heating of over 2,700 °F (1,480 °C). This then drilled into the ventral fin and melted large holes.

The plane survived but never flew again. Test data were limited due to the limited flights of the scramjet before the X-15-A2 and the X-15 project on the whole were cancelled. Scram From 1962–1978, the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) undertook a classified program (declassified in 1993) to develop a family of missiles called SCRAM (Supersonic Combustion RAmjet Missile). They were intended to fit on to the Talos MK12 launcher system or the Terrier MK10 launcher. Testing of engine modules in a direct-connect, and a free-jet, facility took place at a variety of numbers and pressures (altitudes). These included Mach 4 (24,000 ft), Mach 5.3 (46,000 ft), Mach 7.8 (67,000 ft) and Mach 10 (88,000 ft). Tests showed that acceptable combustion efficiency was only achieved with over 20% (B5H9) in MCPD (C12H16).

X 51 Scramjet

Tests with pure (HiCal) showed that a net thrust could be achieved at Mach 7. An accelerative capability equivalent to 11 was observed for Mach 5 flight at sea level. National Aerospace Plane In 1986 United States president announced the (NASP) program, intended to develop two aircraft capable of (SSTO), as well as horizontal takeoff and landing from conventional runways. The aircraft was to be a air-breathing space plane, with a low speed accelerator system to bring the aircraft up to 3, where the main dual-mode scramjet engines (/) would take over. At the edge of the atmosphere, a rocket was to take over and provide the final energy for orbital insertion. It was based on a classified research program called Copper Canyon.

This research program suggested that Mach 25 might be possible. As the program proceeded it became clear that Mach 17 was probably the limit, whilst the weight penalty and complexity of the skin heat exchanger and other propulsion systems was going to be substantial. The program was established by the secretary of defence in 1985, and was funded to the end of FY1994, when the decision was made that the 15 billion dollars required to build the two X-30 test craft were excessive. Although the more visible parts of the program were cancelled, NASP provided a large amount of basic research, which flowed into following projects. For example, The NASP reaction model for hydrogen combustion in air (31 reactions, 16 species), is still extensively used where computational power is sufficient not to have to use reduced reaction models. This article needs to be updated. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.

(November 2010) On July 30, 2002, the 's team (and international partners) conducted the first ever successful test flight of a scramjet. The team took a unique approach to the problem of accelerating the engine to the necessary speed by using an to take the aircraft up on a to an altitude of 314 km. As the craft re-entered the atmosphere, it dropped to a speed of Mach 7.6. The scramjet engine then started, and it flew at about Mach 7.6 for 6 seconds. This was achieved on a lean budget of just 1.5 million (US $1.1 million), a tiny fraction of 's US $250 million to develop the. This involved many of the same researchers involved in the report in 1995 of the first development of a scramjet that achieved more thrust than drag.

On Saturday, March 25, 2006 researchers at the University of Queensland conducted another successful test flight of a HyShot Scramjet at the in. The Hyshot III with its £1,200,000 engine made an apparently successful flight (and planned crash landing) reaching in the order of 7.6 Mach. NASA has partially explained the tremendous difference in cost between the two projects by pointing out that the American vehicle has an engine fully incorporated into an airframe with a full complement of available. In the second HyShot mission, no net thrust was achieved. (The thrust was less than the drag.) The HyShot program currently consists of the following tests:.

HyShot 1 - UQ 2-D scramjet. Failed launch due to rocket fin puncture by a rock on the landing pad. HyShot 2 - UQ 2-D scramjet. Successful, July 30, 2002. HyShot 3-7 - NASA tests. Cancelled after announcement of manned Mars mission.

HyShot 8 (Now known as HyShot III) - 4-chamber scramjet. Successful, March 25, 2006. HyShot 9 (Now known as HyShot IV) - JAXA launch of UQ 2D scramjet with JAXA hypermixer. Successful, March 30, 2006.

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HyShot 10 - HyCAUSE - DSTO scramjet. Successful June 15, 2007. Sponsorship for the HyShot Flight Program was obtained from the University of Queensland, Astrotech Space Operations, Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA (now Qinetiq), UK), National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA, USA), Defence, Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO, Australia), Dept. Of Defence (Australia), Dept. Of Industry Science and Resources (Australia), the German Aerospace Centre (DLR, Germany), Seoul National University (Korea), the Australian Research Council, Australian Space Research Institute (ASRI), Alesi Technologies (Australia), National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL, Japan), NQEA (Australia), Australian Research and Development Unit (ARDU, Australia), the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR, USA) and Luxfer, Australia. Terrier Terrier Oriole - HiFire-2 Hypersonic International Flight Research and Experimentation (HIFiRE) is a joint program of the US Department of Defense and Australian Defence Science and Technology Organization. The 'purpose of this program is to investigate fundamental hypersonic phenomena and accelerate the development of aerospace vehicle technologies deemed critical to long range precision strike' by using an 'affordable, accessible, prototype experimentation strategy'.

HIFiRE 0 May 7, 2009 - First HIFiRE hypersonic test flight. HIFiRE 1 March 22, 2010 - Second HIFiRE hypersonic test flight. HIFiRE 2 May 1, 2012 - Accelerating velocity profile hydrocarbon-fueled scramjet. HIFiRE 3 Sept 13, 2012 - Radical farming axi-symmetric hydrogen-fueled scramjet In 2012 the HIFiRE program was recognized with the prestigious von Karman Award by the International Congress of the Aeronautical Sciences. Hyper-X The $250 million NASA Langley effort was an outgrowth of the canceled program on which NASA was a collaborator.

Rather than developing and flying a large, expensive spaceplane with orbital capability, Hyper-X flew small test vehicles to demonstrate hydrogen-fueled scramjet engines. NASA worked with contractors, and the (GASL) on the project.

NASA's Hyper-X program is the successor to the program which was cancelled in November 1994. This program involves flight testing through the construction of the X-43 vehicles. NASA first successfully flew its scramjet test vehicle on March 27, 2004 (an earlier test, on June 2, 2001 went out of control and had to be destroyed). Unlike the University of Queensland's vehicle, it took a horizontal trajectory.

After it separated from its mother craft and booster, it briefly achieved a speed of 5,000 miles per hour (8,000 km/h), the equivalent of Mach 7, easily breaking the previous speed record for level flight of an air-breathing vehicle. Its engines ran for eleven seconds, and in that time it covered a distance of 15 miles (24 km). The certified the X-43A's flight as the current Aircraft Speed Record holder on 30 August 2004.

The third X-43 flight set a new speed record of 6,600 mph (10,620 km/h), nearly Mach 10 on 16 November 2004. It was boosted by a modified which was launched from a at 13,157 meters (43,166 ft). After a free flight where the scramjet operated for about ten seconds the craft made a planned crash into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of southern California. The X-43A craft were designed to crash into the ocean without recovery.

Duct geometry and performance of the X-43 are classified. The NASA Langley, Marshall, and Glenn Centers are now all heavily engaged in hypersonic propulsion studies. The Glenn Center is taking leadership on a Mach 4 turbine engine of interest to the USAF. As for the X-43A Hyper-X, three follow-on projects are now under consideration: Integrated Systems Test of an Air-Breathing Rocket X-43B: A scaled-up version of the X-43A, to be powered by the (ISTAR) engine. ISTAR will use a hydrocarbon-based liquid-rocket mode for initial boost, a ramjet mode for speeds above Mach 2.5, and a scramjet mode for speeds above Mach 5 to take it to maximum speeds of at least Mach 7. A version intended for space launch could then return to rocket mode for final boost into space. ISTAR is based on a proprietary Aerojet design called a 'strutjet', which is currently undergoing wind-tunnel testing.

NASA's Marshall Space Propulsion Center has introduced an Integrated Systems Test of the Air-Breathing Rocket (ISTAR) program, prompting, and to join forces for development. HyTECH X-43C: NASA is in discussions with the Air Force on development of a variant of the X-43A that would use the HyTECH hydrocarbon-fueled scramjet engine. The and have cooperated on the Hypersonic Technology scramjet engine, which has now been demonstrated in a wind-tunnel environment. While most scramjet designs to date have used hydrogen fuel, HyTech runs on conventional kerosene-type hydrocarbon fuels, which are much more practical for support of operational vehicles. A full-scale engine is now being built, which will use its own fuel for cooling. Using fuel for engine cooling is nothing new, but the cooling system will also act as a chemical reactor, breaking long-chain hydrocarbons down into short-chain hydrocarbons that burn more rapidly. Hyper-X Mach 15 X-43D: A version of the X-43A with a hydrogen-powered scramjet engine with a maximum speed of Mach 15.

Fastt On December 10, 2005, (ATK) successfully flight-tested an air-breathing, liquid JP-10 (hydrocarbon) fuelled scramjet-powered free-flight vehicle from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Virginia. The flight test was conducted under the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)/ Office of Naval Research (ONR) Freeflight Atmospheric Scramjet Test Technique (FASTT) project. This latest flight was a culmination of a three-year, three-flight program to successfully demonstrate the feasibility of using ground-launched sounding rockets as a low-cost approach to hypersonic flight testing, and represents the world's first flight test of an air-breathing, scramjet-powered vehicle using hydrocarbon fuel. Begun in late 2002, the FASTT project entailed the design and fabrication of three flight vehicles and a ground test engine rig to undergo wind tunnel testing. The first and second payloads were dubbed surrogate payload vehicles and matched closely the scramjet flight article, but lacked the internal flowpath and fuel system.

They were designed as test rounds to validate vehicle subsystems, such as booster stack combination performance, fin sets, payload deployment mechanism, telemetry and trackability, and inlet shroud, before flight testing the more complicated scramjet flowpath, which was to undergo proof-of-concept testing in a wind tunnel prior to flight testing. The first surrogate vehicle, SPV1, was launched aboard an unguided Terrier/Improved Orion two-stage solid rocket motor stack from Wallops Island on October 18, 2003, approximately 12 months after program initiation. This had the exact of the eventual shrouded scramjet payload and contained full onboard instrumentation and telemetry suites. The vehicle was boosted to approximately 4,600 ft/s (1,400 m/s) and 52,000 ft (16,000 m) altitude, where it was deployed to free-flight, deployed its shroud at high dynamic pressure, and flew an un-powered trajectory to splashdown.

All on-board subsystems worked flawlessly. The boost stage however inserted the payload at lower than desired flight speed, altitude, and flight path angle. The second surrogate vehicle, SPV2 was launched aboard the identical booster stack from Wallops Island on April 16, 2004, approximately six months after the first launch. After making slight trajectory corrections to account for launch rail effects, higher than anticipated drag, and actual booster performance, the payload was inserted nominally above 5,200 ft/s (1,600 m/s) and 61,000 ft (19,000 m) altitude. The full complement of subsystems were again proven out in flight on this successful flight test.

The results of these two flight tests are summarized in a technical paper AIAA-2005-3297, presented at the 13th International Space Planes and Hypersonics Systems and Technologies Conference (see )in Capua, Italy. The ground test engine hardware was fabricated over 18 months and underwent a four-month engine validation testing program in the ATK GASL freejet wind tunnel complex Leg 6, located in Ronkonkoma, New York. Ignition, fuel throttling, and engine operation were wrung out over a range of expected flight conditions.

After a delay of two months to modify flight hardware based on ground test findings, the first powered vehicle, FFV1, was launched without incident, propelled to speeds of 5,300 ft/s (1,600 m/s) at 63,000 ft (19,000 m) altitude, roughly Mach 5.5. Over 140 inlet, combustor, and vehicle outer mold line pressure, temperatures, and vehicle accelerations as well as fuel pressure, timing feedback, and power systems monitoring were recorded. The vehicle executed the prescribed test sequences flawlessly for 15 seconds, before continuing on to splashdown into the Atlantic Ocean. Further details can be found in the technical paper AIAA-2006-8119, presented at the 14th International Space Planes and Hypersonics Systems and Technologies Conference, in Canberra, Australia. (ATK) GASL Division led the contractor team for the FASTT project, developed and integrated the scramjet vehicle, and acted as mission managers for the three flights.

Launch vehicle integration and processing was performed by Rocket Support Services (formerly DTI Associates), Glen Burnie, MD; the flight shroud was developed by Systima Technologies, Inc., Bothell, Washington; electrical systems, telemetry and instrumentation was handled by the NASA Sounding Rocket Office Contract (NSROC); flight test support was provided by the NASA Wallops Flight Facility; and technical support was provided by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, Baltimore, MD. GASL previously built and integrated the engine flowpaths and fuel systems for the three X-43A flight vehicles, working closely with air framer and systems integrator Boeing, NASA Langley, and NASA Dryden on the successful Hyper-X Program. Promethee Several scramjet designs are now under investigation with Russian assistance. One of these options or a combination of them will be selected by, the French aerospace research agency, with the conglomerate providing technical backup. The notional immediate goal of the study is to produce a hypersonic air-to-surface missile named 'Promethee', which would be about 6 meters (20 ft) long and weigh 1,700 kilograms (3,750 lb).

GASL projectile At a test facility at in the of, the (GASL) fired a equipped with a hydrocarbon-powered scramjet engine from a large gun. On July 26, 2001, the four (100 mm) wide projectile covered a distance of 260 feet (79 m) in 30 (roughly 5,900 mph or 9,500 km/h). The projectile is supposedly a model for a design. Many do not consider this to be a scramjet 'flight,' as the test took place near ground level. However, the test environment was described as being very realistic. Falcon (darpa) The final target of the program is a vehicle that will be using scramjet technology.

HyV ('High-Five') is a scramjet experiment to obtain and compare ground test and flight test supersonic combustion data. The general goal of the project is to validate wind tunnel test results that will eventually be used to develop computational codes. The primary investigators are the, and, and the test will be launched on a sounding rocket from NASA's site.

Boeing X-51 The is a demonstration aircraft for ( 7, around 8,050 km/h) flight testing. The X-51 WaveRider program is a consortium of the US Air Force, and. The program is managed by the Propulsion Directorate within the (AFRL). The X-51 is a descendant of earlier efforts including the Advanced Rapid Response Missile Demonstrator and the liquid hydrocarbon-fuelled scramjet engine developed under the 's HyTech program. The first free-flight of the X-51 took place in May 2010. On 1 May 2013, the X-51 performed its first fully successful flight test, flying for 240 seconds until running out of fuel; this test was the longest air-breathing flight.

This test signified the completion of the program. Other programs India. The -based of the designed and ground-tested a in 2005. A press release stated that stable supersonic combustion was demonstrated in ground testing for nearly seven seconds with an inlet Mach number of six. In 2010, a flight test of Advanced Technology Vehicle (ATV-D01) with a passive scramjet engine combustor module was conducted. It was a suborbital ballistic trajectory based experiment using a two-stage RH-560 sounding rocket. The cruise missile is expected to be tested by 2017.

The is a technology demonstrator under development by the. It has been ground-tested at hypersonic speeds for 20 seconds. On August 28, 2016, ISRO successfully tested its scramjet engine on second developmental flight of its Advanced Technology Vehicle. China On 9 January 2014 US surveillance satellites observed an object flying at a speed of between Mach 5 and Mach 10 with an altitude of around 100 kilometers. Following Chinese statements the preliminary Pentagon designation for this object is.

In the first phase this unmanned vehicle was brought to its operating height and speed by a military long-range missile. In August 2015, it was reported that a Chinese researcher had been awarded for the successful development and test flight of a new scramjet engine, the first of its kind in China. This would make China the third country in the world, after Russia and the United States, to have successfully test flown a scramjet. A new near-hypersonic drone, with a variable-cycle turbo-ramjet engine, has also been flown. It is reportedly the fastest air-breathing recoverable vehicle in the world.

It was later revealed that the first flight of a -like scramjet-powered vehicle occurred in 2011, with flight tests completed by 2014. Germany The has founded Research Training Group 1095. Research purposes are the aero-thermodynamic design and development of a scramjet demonstrator.

There is no official name for the demonstrator yet. The project includes basic research to gain a better understanding of supersonic fuel mixing and combustion, aerodynamic effects, material sciences and issues in system design.

The project involves the, and the. Russia The first working scramjet in the world 'GLL Holod' flew on 28 November 1991, reaching a speed of Mach 5.8. However, the collapse of the Soviet Union stopped the funding of the project. After NASA's NASP program was cut, American scientists began to look at adopting available Russian technology as a less expensive alternative to developing hypersonic flight. On November 17, 1992, scientists with some additional support successfully launched a scramjet engine named 'Holod' in. From 1994 to 1998 NASA worked with the Russian (CIAM) to test a dual-mode scramjet engine and transfer technology and experience to the West.

Four tests took place, reaching Mach numbers of 5.5, 5.35, 5.8, and 6.5. The final test took place aboard a modified surface-to-air missile launched from the test range in the Republic of on 12 February 1998. According to CIAM telemetry data, the first ignition attempt of the scramjet was unsuccessful, but after 10 seconds the engine was started and the experimental system flew 77s with good performance, up until the planned SA-5 missile self-destruction (according to NASA, no net thrust was achieved). Some sources in the Russian military have said that a hypersonic (Mach 10 to Mach 15) maneuverable ICBM warhead was tested. The new 'GLL Igla' system was expected to fly in 2009.

Brazil The is a Brazilian hypersonic aircraft, named in tribute to the of. This aircraft is equipped with a engine, which is integrated into the fuselage and has no moving parts. The operating principle is that, during flight, the air is compressed by the geometry and speed of the vehicle and directed to the engine at the bottom of the aircraft. Hydrogen is used as the fuel. The vehicle will utilize the “” concept. See also. References.

Ohio State University. January 2012. Archived from on June 8, 2013. Flight Results from a Program to Develop a Freeflight Atmospheric Scramjet Test Technique.

Retrieved 2014. Check date values in: access-date=. Hypersonic Scramjet Projectile Flys In Missile Test.

SpaceDaily.com. The HyV Program. Accessed 15 Oct 2009. Archived from on 2009-06-11. Flight International, 3 May 2013.

Aviation Week, 2 May 2013. Retrieved 2015-10-27. 3 March 2010. From the original on 2009-10-03. Retrieved 2009-10-01.

Notes. Thompson, Milton O.

'At the Edge of Space'. Smithsonian Institution, Washington. Paull, A., Stalker, R.J., Mee, D.J. 'Experiments on supersonic combustion ramjet propulsion in a shock tunnel', 296: 156-183, 1995. 'Design considerations for combined air breathing-rocket propulsion systems.'

, AIAA Paper No. 90-5216, 1990. Varvill, R., Bond, A. ', Vol 56, pp 108–117, 2003.

Varvill, R., Bond, A. ', Vol 56, pp 108–117, 2003. Voland, R.T., Auslender, A.H., Smart, M.K., Roudakov, A.S., Semenov, V.L., Kopchenov, V. 'CIAM/NASA Mach 6.5 scramjet flight and ground test', AIAA-99-4848.

Oldenborg R. 'Hypersonic Combustion Kinetics: Status Report of the Rate Constant Committee, NASP High-Speed Propulsion Technology Team' NASP Technical Memorandum 1107, May 1990. Billig, FS 'SCRAM-A Supersonic Combustion Ramjet Missile', AIAA paper 93-2329, 1993.

External links. HyShot Leaders in Scramjet Technology. from the 24 March 2006 HyShot launch. American Scientist. SpaceDaily.

US Patent & Trademark Office. Retrieved October 7, 2005.

Why airbreathing isn't necessarily very good for reaching orbit. Retrieved December 27, 2005.