GRAHAM WARWICK / WASHINGTON DC
Boeing and Pratt & Whitney team shares $140 million contract for demonstrator that could reduce X-43C risk
A Pratt & Whitney/Boeing Phantom Works team has received a US Air Force Research Laboratory contract, potentially worth $140 million, to conduct multiple Mach 6-7 flight tests of a supersonic-combustion ramjet (scramjet) demonstrator beginning in 2007-8.
The Endothermically Fuelled Scramjet Engine Flight Demonstrator programme will reduce risk for the NASA/USAF X-43C experimental hypersonic vehicle, which is also scheduled to fly around 2007-8. The single-engined demonstrator (SED) will feature a P&W hydrocarbon-fuelled scramjet integrated into a Boeing waverider-configured expendable vehicle.
The demonstrator will be released from a Boeing B-52 at 35,000ft (11,000m) and propelled by solid rocket booster to M4.5, where the dual- mode ramjet/scramjet will take over and accelerate the vehicle to between M6.5 and M7+. The USAF plans up to eight SED flights in 2007 or 2008.
The SED will be powered by a flightweight version of the ground demonstrator engine (GDE) developed by P&W under the USAF's HyTech programme. The GDE uses JP7 fuel for both cooling and combustion. The GDE-1 was ground tested at M4.5-6.5 in 2002-3, generating net positive thrust. An improved GDE-2 will be tested in December and provide the basis for both the single-module SED and three-module X-43C engines.
Source: Flight International
