High Speed/Hypersonic Aircraft Propulsion Technology Development
High Speed/Hypersonic Aircraft Propulsion Technology Development
High Speed/Hypersonic Aircraft Propulsion Technology Development
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<strong>High</strong> <strong>Speed</strong>/<strong>Hypersonic</strong> <strong>Aircraft</strong> <strong>Propulsion</strong> <strong>Technology</strong> <strong>Development</strong><br />
Figure 15. - <strong>Technology</strong> Status for First Stage of a TSTO Airbreathing Launch System<br />
This propulsion discussion continues to assume that the first application space access vehicle will incorporate the<br />
turbine-based combination cycle engine system – i.e. a two-flowpath engine in either an “over-under”<br />
arrangement or separately integrated into the airframe. The low-speed engine is assumed to be the NASA/GE<br />
Revolutionary Turbine Accelerator (RTA) [70] or equivalent hydrocarbon-fueled turbo-ramjet engine, with<br />
uninstalled thrust-to-weight (T/W) of about 10. This engine must dash to Mach 4, with about 2-minute full<br />
power operation required above Mach 2.<br />
The high-speed engine is a quasi two dimensional hydrogen-fueled and cooled dual-mode scramjet. Extensive<br />
databases exist for flowpath designs for good engine performance and operability, from Mach 4 to 7. Key<br />
technical challenges for the dual-mode scramjet are low Mach number (M
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