NASA has agreed to sell the technical drawings for the airframe of its X-43A experimental aircraft, which reached Mach 9.7 in 2004, to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) for a possible future hypersonics test.
Flight tests of a Japanese supersonic-combustion ramjet aboard an X-43A-type vehicle in 2015 is being considered by JAXA, with a decision expected by the end of March 2007. The proposed test is part of a 20-year plan to develop a reusable air-breathing space transport system.
The agreement with NASA's Langley Research Center to buy the X-43A airframe drawings came last year when JAXA enquired about the use of the unmanned vehicle, three of which were built to flight test a hydrogen-fuelled scramjet under the US Hyper-X programme. Two were flown successfully, but NASA then cancelled its hypersonics research to focus on space exploration. "The X-43A engine is classified, but the airframe is not classified," says JAXA Institute of Aerospace Technology future space transport research centre director Hidehiko Nakayasu.
Agreed in March 2005, the first five years of JAXA's 20-year space transport plan is aimed at improving the effectiveness of Japan's current launch vehicles and producing a recoverable cargo carrier version of its H-II Transfer Vehicle. By 2015, Japan plans to have a man-rated launcher and other human spaceflight technologies such as a manned capsule or lifting body, and JAXA will also test reusable experimental vehicles. The long-range plan calls for a manned reusable air-breathing space transport system to be in service from 2025.
Source: Flight International