Contribution from leading aerospace company helps propel scramjet project
By Andrea Arco
On November 12 at U.Va.'s
School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) Farid M. Khadduri,
Aerojet's vice president of engineering and technology, presented
a $50,000 check to U.Va. Engineering School dean, James H. Aylor during
a ceremony and luncheon. The generous donation will be used to support
the Engineering School's Hy-V – or supersonic combustion ramjet
(scramjet) – program. The donation follows Aerojet's contribution
of $25,000 to the program one year ago.
According to Christopher Goyne,
director of the Aerospace Research Laboratory at U.Va.'s Engineering
School and principal investigator on the Hy-V program, Aerojet funds
are being used to enable meaningful student involvement with the program.
"Specifically, the money will be used to support the students' work
on the design and fabrication of flight systems and subsystems," he
says.
The U.Va. Engineering School's
Hy-V Program is a statewide collaboration that combines contractual
research partners and student outreach. In addition to U.Va., there
are currently two other universities working on the program in conjunction
with the Virginia Space Grant Consortium: Virginia Tech and Old Dominion.
"Currently there are about
50 students working on this program throughout the Commonwealth, and
we are all excited about the work because hypersonic travel could become
a reality through this research," says Ryan Johnson (Aero '10),
Hy-V student program manager. "We participate in meetings and teleconferences
with students at the other universities to coordinate our research efforts
and report on findings."
Some SEAS student participants
are currently looking at payload recovery system design, fabrication
and testing so that they can inspect the scramjet after the flight.
Others are looking into trajectory – how fast the scramjet will go
and where it will land, while others are examining engine design options.
Students from Virginia Tech are investigating inlet design and testing
as well as fuel injector and igniter design and testing.
Jointly headquartered at U.Va.
and Virginia Tech, the Hy-V Program ("Hy" standing for hypersonic
and "V" standing for both Virginia and the Roman numeral five, which
is the Mach number researchers hope the scramjet will attain) has one
ultimate goal – the successful completion of a low-cost scramjet hypersonic
flight (flight at least five times the speed of sound or Mach 5).
Scramjets are able to achieve
speeds that far exceed that of traditional jets because of their alternative
design; unlike with conventional rocket engines, the oxygen needed by
scramjets for combustion is taken from the atmosphere, not in liquid
form from an onboard tank. This results in a smaller, safer, faster
and less expensive aircraft to operate; a scramjet engine could make
a 40-minute flight from New York City to Los Angeles possible. However,
because the air flowing through a scramjet must be greater than the
speed of sound, a scramjet cannot take off from rest – it requires
a staging vehicle, usually a rocket to accelerate the scramjet to a
supersonic speed.
Aerojet, a GenCorp Inc. company
is a world recognized major space and defense leader specializing in
missile and space propulsion as well as defense and armaments.
Aerojet aids in this research through expertise and interest in high
speed propulsion.
"The Hy-V Program offers
a unique blend of research, educational and experimental elements,"
says Khadduri. "We support this program because it gives students
throughout the Commonwealth the chance to work with professional engineers
and academicians on cutting-edge research. Our nation needs a well-educated
aerospace workforce, and, as a company, we need to recruit these highly-motivated
professionals."
According to Rick Yezzi, Aerojet's
vice president of business development, "We are delighted to be an
enabling contributor to the Hy-V program. We see high-speed, air-breathing
propulsion as a key technology area for the future, and welcome the
opportunity to work alongside the University teams to jointly advance
the state of the art."
The team's scramjet has already
been tested in the Aerospace Research Laboratory's hypersonic wind
tunnel – the only one of its kind in the country that can simulate
Mach 5 conditions for several hours at a time. The scramjet's flight
test, planned for late 2009, will serve to test the validity of the
conditions created by the hypersonic wind tunnel experiment. During
the actual flight test, the scramjet will be launched on a rocket provided
by NASA at NASA Wallops Island on the eastern shore of Virginia and
is expected to reach a speed equivalent to Mach 5 (3700 miles
per hour). The NASA Sounding Rocket Operations Contract (NSROC) Team
will conduct the rocket launch with the help of the students.
"Aerojet is greatly helping
to enhance our students' educational experiences," says James H.
Aylor, dean of U.Va.'s Engineering School. "With their funding,
SEAS students are able to work alongside engineering professionals to
potentially revolutionize air transport – a truly remarkable opportunity."
