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| UQ PhD student Dillon Hunt and the HyShot IV scramjet payload. Photo: Chris Stacey, The University of Queensland |
The Queensland scramjet team’s reputation for world-class research is so high that it has led to a major brain gain for the state.
University of Queensland graduate Associate Professor Michael Smart has returned to join the team from NASA’s Hypersonic Air-Breathing Propulsion Branch in Virginia, where he had been working for 10 years.
“This is an outstanding team,” he said.
“Our researchers are the equal of any in the world and while we may not have the resources of an organisation like NASA, the discipline of making the most of a relatively small budget is probably an asset.
“We have had to be smart – and we are.”
Professor Smart said he probably would not have returned to Queensland if HyShot had not been here.
HyShot has such an international profile that it’s attracted funds and collaboration from organisations all over the world, and substantial funding from the Queensland Government.
The University of Queensland’s HyShot Group launched the world’s first free flight of a scramjet in 2002 and conducted two further flights earlier this year. A third is planned for later in 2006.
“All these flights have an up and down trajectory. They’re launched by rocket to a height of more than 300 kilometres and, at about 30 kilometres above the earth on the way down, combustion occurs and the jet engine operates for about five seconds at a speed of 8000 kilometres an hour,” Professor Smart said.
He has returned to Brisbane because he wanted to be part of the team’s ambitious plans for scramjet over the next five years.
“We’re planning a major advance – launching the rocket on a depressed trajectory and operating the jet for about one minute at 8000 kilometres an hour.”
To achieve that target, the scramjet and its fuel payload would weigh about 400 kilograms, compared with a weight of 110 kilograms for the present experimental engines.
“Our research and technology are so advanced that I don’t believe anyone can beat us to that target,” he said.
He expects progress on development of the engines to be rapid.
“Long before 2020, we’ll have the know-how to fly a scramjet to any part of the world at a speed of Mach 8 (about 8000 kilometres an hour) at a height of 30 kilometres.”
The HyShot Group is also investigating scramjets that would reach a speed of Mach 12 to 14 and fly at a height of up to 45 kilometres above the earth.
“That’s our Holy Grail,” he said.
Initially it’s envisaged that scramjets would be transport vehicles, carrying items such as human organs and medical supplies. The faster scramjets also would offer a cheap means of launching communications and other satellites.
These transport vehicles would be launched initially by rocket, but a different form of aircraft would be required for passenger transport.
“We’d need an aircraft with two engines – the fastest conventional jet engine available for takeoff and landing, which would also take the vehicle to the height and speed necessary for the scramjet to operate.
“The aircraft would be a little like a very sophisticated Concorde.”
Last reviewed 24 June 2006