An advanced Aerojet Rocketdyne scramjet engine has powered a recent flight of the Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC).
The project is in partnership with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and Lockheed Martin team, and marks a second successful flight for the team.
Launched from a B-52, the test flight exceeded Mach 5 while traveling more than 300 nautical miles at altitudes exceeding 60,000 feet, accomplishing all primary test objectives.
The goal of the DARPA HAWC program is to develop and demonstrate critical technologies to enable an effective and affordable air-launched hypersonic cruise missile system. The test flight increased the amount of scramjet powered vehicle performance data to help bring this vision to fruition.
“Aerojet Rocketdyne is proud to be a key part of the team demonstrating maturity in advanced hypersonic flight,” said Eileen P. Drake, Aerojet Rocketdyne CEO and president. “With a second successful flight test now complete, we are, along with our partners, one step closer to making affordable hypersonic flight a reliable capability in support of national defense.”
According to Aerojet Rocketdyne, its continued to improve the aerothermal performance, affordability, scalability and rapid manufacturability of scramjet engines to meet emerging needs for hypersonic missile and aircraft applications.
