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2009

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By Craig Covault The U.S. Air Force HiFire hypersonic flight test program with NASA and the Australian Defense Force is getting underway at the same time the Pentagon and space agency are retooling their relationship for a broad new U.S. aeronautics test strategy. The HiFire (Hypersonic International Flight Research Experimentation) project, set for its first launch by year-end, will test 21st-century aeronautics and space technologies for application to advanced scramjet-powered space launch vehicles and weapons applications. The HiFire payloads will dive into the atmosphere at Mach 4-8 to obtain data directly applicable to new hypersonic flight vehicles. The tests are to begin in the outback of southern Australia. The HiFire objective is to support the new Boeing X-51 scramjet demonstrator while also building a strong base of flight test data for quick-reaction space launch development and hypersonic "quick-strike" weapons. Both Pratt & Whitney and ATK are pursuing advanced scramjet engines that could be an element of future vehicles. More than 100 years after the Wright brothers' first aircraft and 50 years after Sputnik, the merger of aeronautics and space technologies for high-Mach air-breathing vehicles is undergoing revival with HiFire, then the X-51, according to USAF and NASA. "Hypersonics could be the 'next great step' in the transformation of the Air Force into a completely integrated Aerospace Force," says the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board. Aside from the space shuttle, which began development more than 30 years ago, the field of Mach 4-8 flight test has been more the stuff of the 1960s. A special report on the pace of previous 20th century missile and space developments begins on p. 51. Specific HiFire test objectives will encompass aerosciences, propulsion, materials and structures, sensors, space environment effects, and instrumentation and measurement techniques. The program will involve the launch of 10 42-ft.long Terrier-Orion rockets with a liftoff thrust of 58,000 lb. The flights will be conducted at Australia's Woomera Test Range, the largest land-based military restricted area in the world. The launchers will climb to 160 mi. altitude before pitching down to dive back into the atmosphere at speeds up to about Mach 8, where the booster payloads will obtain specific hypersonic data. The 6-8-year HiFire project will directly support technology needs for the X-51, says Douglas Dolvin, the HiFire Air Force program manager. As such, "HiFire will provide for the execution of a number of flight test experiments, about four per flight, much as NASA conducts spaceborne research by integrating multiple experiments," he says. The X-51 is "the jewel in the crown of hypersonics," says Mark Lewis, Air Force chief scientist. It could begin initial flight tests within two years. But HiFire tests will begin ahead of X-51 flights, and proceed in parallel with the X-51 flights to explore specific hypersonic computational, aerospace materials and aerodynamic modeling problems. Lewis is receiving high praise from the Pentagon, NASA and industry for reinvigorating such hypersonic work. In addition, the HiFire program will be an early beneficiary of a new agreement just signed between NASA and the Defense Dept. The document calls for a more integrated aeronautics test plan between the two agencies, including new efforts to bridge space and aeronautics technologies for hypersonic weapons and rapid-response space launch concepts. The new accord is also a direct response to the White House National Aeronautics Research and Development Policy signed by President Bush in December. In addition, the Bush aeronautics policy has objectives that intersect with the new space policy signed earlier in 2006.
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The HiFire Flight Tests Will Help Integ

The management of NASA aeronautics programs and a reduction in flight test efforts have been criticized by Congress in recent years. Nevertheless, HiFire is an example of where Defense Dept. and NASA have mutual flight test interests that match a growing national need. A large number of NASA personnel and facilities will be involved in the program. "An extensive NASA team--representing the entire hypersonics competency and reaching across five NASA centers to include Ames, Dryden, Glenn, Goddard and Langley-- will provide technical guidance and consultation throughout the execution of this project," says a joint NASA/Air Force/Australian document on the program. "The NASA team will perform computational analysis and experimental validation of aerothermal phenomena. The NASA team will also develop the design definition and manufacture of multiple experimental engine models. Further, NASA scientists will execute both aerodynamic and aeropropulsion testing activities in their research facilities at NASA Langley," the agreement says. "Lastly, NASA personnel from Dryden and Wallops Island will support the flight activities with systems integration and launch operations." In the far term, these air-breathing hypersonic vehicles may enable operationally responsive space access, Dolvin says. In the near term, however, he says the HiFire technology tests, along with X-51, should lead to "air-breathing, powered hypersonic cruise missiles able to deliver prompt, precision strike of time-critical targets from safe, standoff distances." HiFire is also complementary to Australian objectives for the development of high-speed flight and space launch technologies there. The specific $54-million HiFire agreement between the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and the Australian Defense Science and Technology Organization represents one of the largest aerospace collaborations ever between the two countries, says Roger Lough, the chief scientist for the Australian Defense Dept. (AW&ST Nov. 13, 2006, p. 22). A new Australian space and hypersonic capability resulting from the program also could provide somewhat of a counterbalance in the Asia-Pacific region to new space technology development programs and facilities in China and India. Sandy MacDonald, the Australian parliamentary secretary for defense, says that besides aiding major U.S. space and weapons-related hypersonic programs, HiFire should also benefit Australia. "The Australian Defense Force is developing a high-technology, network-enabled [capability]," he says, "and its reliance on space is increasing for intelligence-gathering, communications and a range of support operations. Hypersonics offers low-cost methods of transporting payloads into space by using reusable, air-breathing propulsion systems." "The HiFire program is an assimilation of research tasks to explore hypersonics phenomena that represent predicted conditions at the edges of the operational envelope for the X-51," Dolvin says. "And it is to provide effective, affordable, frequent access to the hypersonic flight regime," he told Aviation Week & Space Technology. The objective is to fly one to three HiFire missions per year between late 2007 and 2011. The first is baselined to be fired as early as this September. It will investigate hypersonic boundary layer transition, shock and boundary layer interaction, and optical measurements of inlet dynamics. Many U.S. and Australian test facilities, contractors and universities will also be involved in preparing and carrying out the flights. They include: *The USAF Arnold Engineering Development Center wind tunnels and its "Free Jet" test facility" at Tullahoma, Tenn. *The NASA Langley Research Center high-temperature tunnel at Hampton, Va. *CUBRC company test facilities in Buffalo, N.Y., including its "LENS" hypersonic test facilities, the world's most advanced tunnels for high-Reynolds-number testing in hypervelocity flows. *United Technologies Research Center facilities in Hartford, Conn. *AFRL "Cell 22" scramjet propulsion research facility at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio.
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*Boeing Phantom Works. *The universities of Queensland and New South Wales in Australia. "The research effort will consist of a series of focused tasks to resolve hypersonic phenomena through validation of computational analysis, comparison with performance predictions, and development of correlations with ground test," says the joint U.S.-Australian document on the program. "The research effort will provide a unique opportunity to examine hypersonic phenomena under real flight conditions at an affordable cost. This capability will enable the investigation of transitory phenomena . . . difficult, if not impossible, to simulate in ground test facilities." In addition to NASA involvement, the program will be carried out "by a multinational team representing several directorates of the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory and the Weapon Systems Div. of the Australian Defense Science and Technology Organization (DSTO); with support from partners of the Australian Hypersonics Consortium (AHC), to include the Hypersonics Research Group at the University of Queensland," the document says. "The fundamental research tasks will include the completion of computational analysis and ground experimentation jointly executed by government and industry researchers in both the U.S. and Australian facilities. Each effort will culminate in the flight testing of an experimental payload boosted to the appropriate hypersonic flight conditions. Significant data collection and processing will provide for comparison with numerical and ground test results. "Optical diagnostics will be developed to support measurements in both ground and flight experiments. These techniques will help characterize critical vehicle/engine conditions such as air mass capture, stability limits, and the progress of combustion," it says.

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