It is too early to talk about an arms race in this area - today it is a technology race. Hypersonic projects have not yet gone beyond the scope of R&D: so far, mostly demonstrators are flying. Their levels of technological readiness on the DARPA scale are mainly in the fourth or sixth position (on a ten-point scale).
However, it is not necessary to talk about hypersound as some kind of technical novelty. Warheads of ICBMs enter the atmosphere on hypersonic, descent vehicles with astronauts, space shuttles are also hypersonic. But flying at hypersonic speeds while descending from orbit is a necessary necessity, and it does not last long. We will talk about aircraft for which hypersound is a regular mode of use, and without it they will not be able to show their superiority and show their capabilities and power.
Swift Scout
SR-72 is a promising American aircraft that can become a functional analogue of the legendary SR-71 - a supersonic and highly maneuverable reconnaissance aircraft. The main difference from its predecessor is the absence of a pilot in the cockpit and hypersonic speed.
Orbital strike
We will talk about hypersonic maneuvering guided objects - maneuvering warheads of ICBMs, hypersonic cruise missiles, hypersonic UAVs. What, in fact, do we mean by hypersonic aircraft? First of all, the following characteristics are taken into account: flight speed - 5-10 M (6150-12 300 km / h) and higher, covered operating altitude range - 25-140 km. One of the most attractive qualities of hypersonic vehicles is the impossibility of reliable tracking by means of air defense, since the object flies in a plasma cloud that is opaque to radars. It is also worth noting the high maneuverability and the minimum reaction time to defeat. For example, a hypersonic vehicle takes only an hour after leaving the orbit to hit the selected target.
Projects of hypersonic devices have been developed more than once and continue to be developed in our country. One can recall the Tu-130 (6 M), the Ajax aircraft (8-10 M), projects of high-altitude-speed hypersonic aircraft of the OKB im. Mikoyan on hydrocarbon fuel in various applications and a hypersonic aircraft (6 M) on two types of fuel - hydrogen for high flight speeds and kerosene for lower ones.
US-developed Boeing X-51A Waverider hypersonic missile
He left his mark in engineering design of the Design Bureau. Mikoyan "Spiral", in which the returning aerospace hypersonic aircraft was launched into orbit by a hypersonic booster aircraft, and after completing combat missions in orbit, returned to the atmosphere, performed maneuvers in it also at hypersonic speeds. The developments under the Spiral project were used in the projects of the BOR and the Buran space shuttle. There is officially unconfirmed information about the Aurora hypersonic aircraft created in the USA. Everyone has heard of him, but no one has ever seen him.
"Zircon" for the fleet
March 17, 2016 it became known that Russia has officially started testing hypersonic anti-ship cruise missile(PKR) "Zircon". The newest projectile will be armed with fifth-generation nuclear submarines (Husky), it will also be received by surface ships and, of course, the flagship of the Russian fleet, Peter the Great. A speed of 5–6 M and a range of at least 400 km (a missile will cover this distance in four minutes) will significantly complicate the application of countermeasures. It is known that the rocket will use the new Detsilin-M fuel, which increases the flight range by 300 km. The developer of the Zircon anti-ship missiles is NPO Mashinostroeniya, which is part of the Tactical Corporation missile armament"". The appearance of a serial rocket can be expected by 2020. At the same time, it should be taken into account that Russia has rich experience in creating high-speed anti-ship cruise missiles, such as the serial P-700 Granit anti-ship missile (2.5 M), the serial P-270 Moskit anti-ship missile (2.8 M), on which will be replaced by the new Zircon anti-ship missiles.
Winged Strike
The unmanned hypersonic gliding aircraft, developed at the Tupolev Design Bureau in the late 1950s, was supposed to be the last stage of the missile strike system.
Cunning Warhead
The first information about the launch of the Yu-71 product (as it is designated in the West) into low-Earth orbit by the RS-18 Stiletto rocket and its return to the atmosphere appeared in February 2015. The launch was made from the position area of the Dombrovsky formation by the 13th missile division of the Strategic Missile Forces (Orenburg region). It is also reported that by 2025 the division will receive 24 Yu-71 products to equip the already new Sarmat missiles. The product Yu-71 within the framework of project 4202 was also created by NPO Mashinostroeniya since 2009.
The product is a super-maneuverable missile warhead capable of gliding at a speed of 11,000 km/h. It can go into near space and from there hit targets, as well as carry a nuclear charge and be equipped with an electronic warfare system. At the time of entry "dive" into the atmosphere, the speed can be 5000 m / s (18000 km / h) and for this reason the Yu-71 has protection against overheating and overloads, and can easily change the direction of flight without being destroyed.
Element of a hypersonic airframe, which remained a project
The length of the aircraft was to be 8 m, wingspan - 2.8 m.
The Yu-71 product, having high maneuverability at hypersonic speeds in altitude and heading and flying along a non-ballistic trajectory, becomes unattainable for any air defense system. In addition, the warhead is controllable, thanks to which it has a very high hitting accuracy: this will also allow it to be used in a non-nuclear high-precision version. It is known that several launches were made during 2011-2015. It is believed that the Yu-71 product will be put into service in 2025, and it will be equipped with the Sarmat ICBM.
Climb up
Of the projects of the past, the X-90 rocket, which was developed by the Raduga Design Bureau, can be noted. The project dates back to 1971, it was closed in a difficult year for the country in 1992, although the tests showed good results. The rocket was repeatedly demonstrated at the MAKS aerospace show. A few years later, the project was revived: the rocket received a speed of 4-5 Mach and a range of 3,500 km with a launch from a Tu-160 carrier. The demonstration flight took place in 2004. It was supposed to arm the rocket with two detachable warheads located on the sides of the fuselage, but the projectile never entered service.
The RVV-BD hypersonic missile was developed by the Vympel Design Bureau named after I.I. Toropova. It continues the line of K-37, K-37M missiles, which are in service with the MiG-31 and MiG-31BM. The RVV-BD missile will also arm hypersonic interceptors of the PAK DP project. According to the statement of the head of KTRV Boris Viktorovich Obnosov, made at MAKS 2015, the rocket began to be mass-produced and its first batches will roll off the assembly line as early as 2016. The missile weighs 510 kg, has a high-explosive fragmentation warhead and will hit targets at ranges of 200 km in a wide range of altitudes. The dual-mode solid propellant rocket engine allows it to develop a hypersonic speed of 6 M.
SR-71
Today, this aircraft, long out of service, occupies a prominent place in the history of aviation. It is being replaced by hypersound.
Hypersound of the Middle Kingdom
In the fall of 2015, the Pentagon reported, and this was confirmed by Beijing, that China had successfully tested the DF-ZF Yu-14 (WU-14) hypersonic maneuvering aircraft, which was launched from the Wuzhai test site. Yu-14 separated from the carrier "at the edge of the atmosphere", and then planned for a target located several thousand kilometers in western China. The flight of the DF-ZF was monitored by US intelligence services, and according to them, the device maneuvered at a speed of 5 Mach, although its speed could potentially reach 10 Mach. protection against kinetic heating. PRC representatives also reported that the Yu-14 is capable of breaking through the US air defense system and delivering a global nuclear strike.
America Projects
Currently, various hypersonic aircraft are "in work" in the United States, which are undergoing flight tests with varying degrees of success. Work on them began in the early 2000s, and today they are at different levels of technological readiness. Boeing, the developer of the X-51A hypersonic vehicle, recently announced that the X-51A would be put into service as early as 2017.
Among the ongoing projects, the United States has: the AHW (Advanced Hypersonic Weapon) hypersonic maneuvering warhead project, the Falcon HTV-2 (Hyper-Sonic Technology Vehicle) hypersonic aircraft launched using ICBMs, the Kh-43 Hyper-X hypersonic aircraft, a prototype hypersonic cruise missile X-51A Waverider of the Boeing company, equipped with a hypersonic ramjet with supersonic combustion. It is also known that in the United States, work is underway on the SR-72 hypersonic UAV from Lockheed Martin, which only in March 2016 officially announced its work on this product.
Cosmic "spiral"
A hypersonic booster aircraft developed under the Spiral project. It was also assumed that the system would include a military orbital aircraft with a rocket booster.
The first mention of the SR-72 drone dates back to 2013, when Lockheed Martin announced that the SR-72 hypersonic UAV would be developing to replace the SR-71 reconnaissance aircraft. It will fly at a speed of 6400 km/h at operating altitudes of 50-80 km up to suborbital, will have a dual-circuit propulsion system with a common air intake and a nozzle apparatus based on a turbojet engine for acceleration from a speed of 3 M and a hypersonic ramjet engine with supersonic combustion for flying at speeds over 3 M. SR-72 will perform reconnaissance missions, as well as strike with high-precision air-to-surface weapons in the form of light missiles without an engine - they will not need it, since a good starting hypersonic speed is already available.
The problematic issues of SR-72 experts include the choice of materials and skin design that can withstand large thermal loads from kinetic heating at temperatures of 2000 ° C and above. It will also be necessary to solve the problem of separating weapons from internal compartments at a hypersonic flight speed of 5-6 Mach and to exclude cases of loss of communication, which were repeatedly observed during tests of the HTV-2 object. Lockheed Martin Corporation said that the dimension of the SR-72 will be comparable to the dimension of the SR-71 - in particular, the length of the SR-72 will be 30 m. The SR-72 is expected to enter service in 2030.
Hypersonic aircraft, which will reach technical maturity in the near future, may radically change the entire field of missile weapons. And Russia will have to join this race, otherwise there will be a risk of losing too much. After all, we are talking about nothing less than a scientific and technological revolution.
It is too early to talk about an arms race in this area - today it is a technology race. Hypersonic projects have not yet gone beyond the scope of R&D: so far, mostly demonstrators are flying. Their levels of technological readiness on the DARPA scale are mainly in the fourth or sixth position (on a ten-point scale).
However, it is not necessary to talk about hypersound as some kind of technical novelty. Warheads of ICBMs enter the atmosphere on hypersonic, descent vehicles with astronauts, space shuttles are also hypersonic. But flying at hypersonic speeds while descending from orbit is a necessary necessity, and it does not last long. We will talk about aircraft for which hypersound is a regular mode of use, and without it they will not be able to show their superiority and show their capabilities and power.
IMPACT FROM ORBIT
We will talk about hypersonic maneuvering guided objects - maneuvering warheads of ICBMs, hypersonic cruise missiles, hypersonic UAVs. What, in fact, do we mean by hypersonic aircraft? First of all, we have in mind the following characteristics: flight speed - 5-10 M and above, covered operating altitude range - 25-140 km. One of the most attractive qualities of hypersonic vehicles is the impossibility of reliable tracking by air defense systems, since the object flies in a plasma cloud that is opaque to radars. It is also worth noting the high maneuverability and the minimum reaction time to defeat. For example, a hypersonic vehicle takes only an hour after leaving the orbit to hit the selected target.
Projects of hypersonic devices have been developed more than once and continue to be developed in our country. One can recall the Tu-130, the Ajax aircraft on two types of fuel - hydrogen for high flight speeds and kerosene for smaller ones.
The project of the OKB im. Mikoyan "Spiral", in which the returning aerospace hypersonic aircraft was launched into orbit by a hypersonic booster aircraft, and after completing combat missions in orbit, returned to the atmosphere, performed maneuvers in it also at hypersonic speeds. The developments under the Spiral project were used in the projects of the BOR and the Buran space shuttle. There is officially unconfirmed information about the Aurora hypersonic aircraft created in the USA. Everyone has heard of him, but no one has ever seen him.
"ZIRCON" FOR THE FLEET
On March 17, 2016, it became known that Russia officially began testing the Zircon hypersonic anti-ship cruise missile (ASC). The newest projectile will be armed with fifth-generation nuclear submarines (Husky), it will also be received by surface ships and, of course, the flagship of the Russian fleet, Peter the Great. A speed of 5-6 M and a range of at least 400 km (a missile will cover this distance in four minutes) will significantly complicate the application of countermeasures. It is known that the rocket will use the new Detsilin-M fuel, which increases the flight range by 300 km. The developer of the Zircon anti-ship missiles is NPO Mashinostroeniya, which is part of the Tactical Missiles Corporation. The appearance of a serial rocket can be expected by 2020. At the same time, it should be taken into account that Russia has rich experience in creating high-speed anti-ship cruise missiles, such as the serial P-700 Granit anti-ship missile (2.5 M), the serial P-270 Moskit anti-ship missile (2.8 M), on which will be replaced by the new Zircon anti-ship missiles.
INTELLIGENT WARHEAD
The first information about the launch of the Yu-71 product (as it is designated in the West] into low-Earth orbit by the RS-18 Stiletto rocket and its re-entry into the atmosphere appeared in February 2015. The launch was made from the positional area of the Dombrovsky formation by the 13th Missile Division of the Strategic Missile Forces (Orenburg region) It is also reported that the division will receive 24 Yu-71 products to equip the already new Sarmat missiles by 2025. The Yu-71 product has also been created by NPO Mashinostroeniya since 2009 as part of project 4202.
The product is a super-maneuverable missile warhead capable of gliding at a speed of 11,000 km/h. It can go into near space and from there hit targets, as well as carry a nuclear charge and be equipped with an electronic warfare system. At the time of entry "dive" into the atmosphere, the speed can be 5000 m / s (18000 km / h) and for this reason the Yu-71 has protection against overheating and overloads, and can easily change the direction of flight without being destroyed.
The Yu-71 product, having high maneuverability at hypersonic speeds in altitude and heading and flying along a non-ballistic trajectory, becomes unattainable for any air defense system. In addition, the warhead is controllable, thanks to which it has a very high hitting accuracy: this will also allow it to be used in a non-nuclear high-precision version. It is known that several launches were made during 2011-2015. It is believed that the Yu-71 product will be put into service in 2025, and it will be equipped with the Sarmat ICBM.
GO UP
Of the projects of the past, one can note the Kh-90 rocket, which was developed by the Raduga Design Bureau. The project dates back to 1971, it was closed in a difficult year for the country in 1992, although the tests showed good results. The rocket was repeatedly demonstrated at the MAKS aerospace show. A few years later, the project was revived: the rocket received a speed of 4-5 M and a range of 3500 km with a launch from a Tu-160 carrier. The demonstration flight took place in 2004. It was supposed to arm the rocket with two detachable warheads placed on the sides of the fuselage, but the projectile never entered service.
The RVV-BD hypersonic missile was developed by the Vympel Design Bureau named after I.I. Toropova. It continues the line of K-37, K-37M missiles, which are in service with the MiG-31 and MiG-31BM. The RVV-BD missile will also arm hypersonic interceptors of the PAK DP project. According to the statement of the head of KTRV Boris Viktorovich Obnosov, made at MAKS 2015, the rocket began to be mass-produced and its first batches will roll off the assembly line as early as 2016. The missile weighs 510 kg, has a high-explosive fragmentation warhead and will hit targets at ranges of 200 km in a wide range of altitudes. The dual-mode solid propellant rocket engine allows it to develop a hypersonic speed of 6 M.
HYPERSOUND
In the fall of 2015, the Pentagon reported, and this was confirmed by Beijing, that China had successfully tested the DF-ZF Yu-14 (WU-14) hypersonic maneuvering aircraft, which was launched from the Wuzhai test site. Yu-14 separated from the carrier "at the edge of the atmosphere", and then planned for a target located several thousand kilometers in western China. The flight of the DF-ZF was monitored by US intelligence services, and according to them, the device maneuvered at a speed of 5 Mach, although its speed could potentially reach 10 Mach. protection against kinetic heating. PRC representatives also reported that the Yu-14 is capable of breaking through the US air defense system and delivering a global nuclear strike.
AMERICA PROJECTS
Currently, various hypersonic aircraft are "in work" in the United States, which are undergoing flight tests with varying degrees of success. Work on them began in the early 2000s, and today they are at different levels of technological readiness. Boeing, the developer of the X-51A hypersonic vehicle, recently announced that the X-51A would be put into service as early as 2017.
Among the ongoing projects, the United States has: the AHW (Advanced Hypersonic Weapon) hypersonic maneuvering warhead project, the Falcon HTV-2 (Hyper-Sonic Technology Vehicle) hypersonic aircraft launched using ICBMs, the X-43 Hyper-X hypersonic aircraft, a prototype hypersonic cruise missile The Boeing X-51A Waverider, equipped with a hypersonic ramjet with supersonic combustion.It is also known that in the United States, work is underway on the SR-72 hypersonic UAV from Lockheed Martin, which only officially announced its work on this product in March 2016.
The first mention of the SR-72 drone dates back to 2013, when Lockheed Martin announced that the 5R-72 hypersonic UAV would be developing to replace the SR-71 reconnaissance aircraft. It will fly at a speed of 6400 km / h at operating altitudes of 50-80 km up to suborbital, will have a dual-circuit propulsion system with a common air intake and a nozzle apparatus based on a turbojet engine for acceleration from a speed of 3 M and a hypersonic ramjet engine with supersonic combustion for flying at speeds over 3 M. 5R-72 will perform reconnaissance missions, as well as strike with high-precision air-to-surface weapons in the form of light missiles without an engine - they will not need it, since a good starting hypersonic speed is already available.
The problematic issues of the SR-72 include the choice of materials and the design of the skin that can withstand large thermal loads from kinetic heating at temperatures of 2000 ° C and above. It will also be necessary to solve the problem of separating weapons from internal compartments at a hypersonic flight speed of 5-6 Mach and to exclude cases of loss of communication, which were repeatedly observed during tests of the HTV-2 object. Lockheed Martin Corporation said that the dimension of the SR-72 will be comparable to the dimension of the SR-71 - in particular, the length of the SR-72 will be 30 m. The SR-72 is expected to enter service in 2030.
Hypersonic aircraft, which will reach technical maturity in the near future, may radically change the entire field of missile weapons. It is too early to talk about an arms race in this area - today it is a technology race. Hypersonic projects have not yet gone beyond the scope of R&D: so far, mostly demonstrators are flying. Their levels of technological readiness on the DARPA scale are mainly in the fourth or sixth position (on a ten-point scale).
However, it is not necessary to talk about hypersound as some kind of technical novelty. Warheads of ICBMs enter the atmosphere on hypersonic, descent vehicles with astronauts, space shuttles are also hypersonic. But flying at hypersonic speeds while descending from orbit is a necessary necessity, and it does not last long. We will talk about aircraft for which hypersound is a regular mode of use, and without it they will not be able to show their superiority and show their capabilities and power.
SR-72 is a promising American aircraft that can become a functional analogue of the legendary SR-71 - a supersonic and highly maneuverable reconnaissance aircraft. The main difference from its predecessor is the absence of a pilot in the cockpit and hypersonic speed.
Orbital strike
We will talk about hypersonic maneuvering guided objects - hypersonic cruise missiles, hypersonic UAVs. What, in fact, do we mean by hypersonic aircraft? First of all, we have in mind the following characteristics: flight speed - 5-10 M (6150-12300 km/h) and higher, covered operating altitude range - 25-140 km. One of the most attractive qualities of hypersonic vehicles is the impossibility of reliable tracking by means of air defense, since the object flies in a plasma cloud that is opaque to radars.
It is also worth noting the high maneuverability and the minimum reaction time to defeat. For example, a hypersonic vehicle takes only an hour after leaving the orbit to hit the selected target.
Projects of hypersonic devices have been developed more than once and continue to be developed in our country. One can recall the Tu-130 (6 M), the Ajax aircraft (8-10 M), the projects of high-speed hypersonic aircraft of the OKB im. Mikoyan on hydrocarbon fuel in various applications and a hypersonic aircraft (6 M) on two types of fuel - hydrogen for high flight speeds and kerosene for lower ones.
The US-developed Boeing X-51A Waverider hypersonic missile. The project of the OKB im. Mikoyan "Spiral", in which the returning aerospace hypersonic aircraft was launched into orbit by a hypersonic booster aircraft, and after completing combat missions in orbit, returned to the atmosphere, performed maneuvers in it also at hypersonic speeds. The developments under the Spiral project were used in the projects of the BOR and the Buran space shuttle. There is officially unconfirmed information about the Aurora hypersonic aircraft created in the USA. Everyone has heard of him, but no one has ever seen him.
"Zircon" for the fleet
On March 17, 2016, it became known that . The latest projectile will be armed with fifth-generation nuclear submarines ("Husky"), surface ships and, of course, will also receive it. A speed of 5-6 M and a range of at least 400 km (a missile will cover this distance in four minutes) will significantly complicate the application of countermeasures. It is known that the rocket will use the new Detsilin-M fuel, which increases the flight range by 300 km.
The developer of the Zircon anti-ship missiles is NPO Mashinostroeniya, which is part of the Tactical Missiles Corporation. The appearance of a serial rocket can be expected by 2020. At the same time, it should be taken into account that Russia has rich experience in creating high-speed anti-ship cruise missiles, such as the serial P-700 Granit anti-ship missile (2.5 M), the serial P-270 Moskit anti-ship missile (2.8 M), on which will be replaced by the new Zircon anti-ship missiles.
Cunning Warhead
The first (as it is designated in the West) to low Earth orbit by the RS-18 Stiletto rocket and its re-entry into the atmosphere appeared in February 2015. The launch was made from the position area of the Dombrovsky formation by the 13th missile division of the Strategic Missile Forces (Orenburg region). It is also reported that by 2025 the division will receive 24 Yu-71 products to equip the already new Sarmat missiles. The product Yu-71 within the framework of project 4202 was also created by NPO Mashinostroeniya since 2009.
The product is a super-maneuverable missile warhead capable of gliding at a speed of 11,000 km/h. It can go into near space and from there hit targets, as well as carry a nuclear charge and be equipped with an electronic warfare system. At the time of entry "dive" into the atmosphere, the speed can be 5000 m / s (18000 km / h) and for this reason the Yu-71 has protection against overheating and overloads, and can easily change the direction of flight without being destroyed.
The Yu-71 product, having high maneuverability at hypersonic speeds in altitude and heading and flying along a non-ballistic trajectory, becomes unattainable for any air defense system. In addition, the warhead is controllable, thanks to which it has a very high hitting accuracy: this will also allow it to be used in a non-nuclear high-precision version. It is known that several launches were made during 2011-2015. It is believed that the Yu-71 product will be put into service in 2025, and it will be equipped with the Sarmat ICBM.
Climb up
Of the projects of the past, one can note the Kh-90 rocket, which was developed by the Raduga Design Bureau. The project dates back to 1971, it was closed in a difficult year for the country in 1992, although the tests showed good results. The rocket was repeatedly demonstrated at the MAKS aerospace show. A few years later, the project was revived: the rocket received a speed of 4-5 M and a range of 3500 km with a launch from a Tu-160 carrier. The demonstration flight took place in 2004. It was supposed to arm the rocket with two detachable warheads placed on the sides of the fuselage, but the projectile never entered service.
The RVV-BD hypersonic missile was developed by the Vympel Design Bureau named after I.I. Toropova. It continues the line of K-37, K-37M missiles, which are in service with the MiG-31 and MiG-31BM. The RVV-BD missile will also arm hypersonic interceptors of the PAK DP project. According to the statement of the head of KTRV Boris Viktorovich Obnosov, made at MAKS 2015, the rocket began to be mass-produced and its first batches will roll off the assembly line as early as 2016. The missile weighs 510 kg, has a high-explosive fragmentation warhead and will hit targets at ranges of 200 km in a wide range of altitudes. The dual-mode solid propellant rocket engine allows it to develop a hypersonic speed of 6 M.
Hypersound of the Middle Kingdom
In the fall of 2015, the Pentagon reported, and this was confirmed by Beijing, that it was launched from the Wuzhai test site. Yu-14 separated from the carrier "at the edge of the atmosphere", and then planned for a target located several thousand kilometers in western China. The flight of the DF-ZF was monitored by American intelligence services, and according to their data, the device maneuvered at a speed of 5 Mach, although its potential speed could reach 10 Mach.
China said it had solved the problem of hypersonic jet engines for such vehicles and created new lightweight composite materials to protect against kinetic heat. PRC representatives also reported that the Yu-14 is capable of breaking through the US air defense system and delivering a global nuclear strike.
America Projects
Currently, various hypersonic aircraft are "in work" in the United States, which are undergoing flight tests with varying degrees of success. Work on them began in the early 2000s, and today they are at different levels of technological readiness. Boeing, the developer of the X-51A hypersonic vehicle, recently announced that the X-51A would be put into service as early as 2017.
Among the ongoing projects, the United States has: the AHW (Advanced Hypersonic Weapon) hypersonic maneuvering warhead project, the Falcon HTV-2 (Hyper-Sonic Technology Vehicle) hypersonic aircraft launched using ICBMs, the Kh-43 Hyper-X hypersonic aircraft, a prototype hypersonic cruise missile X-51A Waverider of the Boeing company, equipped with a hypersonic ramjet with supersonic combustion. It is also known that in the United States, work is underway on the SR-72 hypersonic UAV from Lockheed Martin, which only in March 2016 officially announced its work on this product.
The first mention of the SR-72 drone dates back to 2013, when Lockheed Martin announced that the SR-72 hypersonic UAV would be developing to replace the SR-71 reconnaissance aircraft. It will fly at a speed of 6400 km / h at operating altitudes of 50-80 km up to suborbital, will have a dual-circuit propulsion system with a common air intake and a nozzle apparatus based on a turbojet engine for acceleration from a speed of 3 M and a hypersonic ramjet engine with supersonic combustion for flying at speeds over 3 M. SR-72 will perform reconnaissance missions, as well as strike with high-precision air-to-surface weapons in the form of light missiles without an engine - they will not need it, since a good starting hypersonic speed is already available.
The problematic issues of SR-72 experts include the choice of materials and skin design that can withstand large thermal loads from kinetic heating at temperatures of 2000 ° C and above. It will also be necessary to solve the problem of separating weapons from internal compartments at a hypersonic flight speed of 5-6 Mach and to exclude cases of loss of communication, which were repeatedly observed during tests of the HTV-2 object. Lockheed Martin Corporation said that the dimension of the SR-72 will be comparable to the dimension of the SR-71 - in particular, the length of the SR-72 will be 30 m. The SR-72 is expected to enter service in 2030.
In history, GLAs have been implemented in the form of several test aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles and orbital stages-spaceplanes of reusable spacecraft (MTKK). There have also been and are a large number of projects Vehicle of these types, as well as aerospace systems (orbital aircraft) with hypersonic booster and orbital stages or single-stage AKS spacecraft and passenger spaceplanes.
One of the first detailed projects of the GLA was the unrealized Zenger project to create a partially orbital combat bomber "Silbervogel" in Nazi Germany.
Unlike spaceplanes, due to the need for more complex propulsion and structural technologies when creating spacecraft, none of the spacecraft projects has been implemented to date.
Hypersonic aircraft
In the 1960s, the United States carried out a program to develop and fly an experimental rocket-plane North American X-15, which became the first in history and for 40 years the only GLA aircraft to perform suborbital manned space flights. In the USA, 13 of his flights above 80 km, and in the world (FAI) - 2 of them, in which the space limit of 100 km was exceeded, are recognized as suborbital manned space flights, and their participants are astronauts.
Similar programs in the USSR and other countries.
At the beginning of the 21st century, there was a project in Russia, but the project of a partially reusable winged spaceship A clipper launched on a conventional launch vehicle.
In the United States, the Boeing X-37 project continues with flights into orbit of an experimental spaceplane launched on a launch vehicle. Projects are being developed: in the UK - a single-stage AKS-spacecraft Skylon with a horizontal launch and landing, in India - a prototype spaceplane launched on a launch vehicle of a single-stage AKS-spacecraft RLV / AVATAR with a vertical launch and a horizontal landing, in China - a spaceplane launched on a launch vehicle and its prototype Shenlong and two-stage MTKK with horizontal launch and landing, etc.
- Single stage space system
Hypersonic UAVs
Projects of special experimental unmanned GLAs are being developed and implemented in order to test the possibilities of creating two- and one-stage reusable transport ACS (spaceplanes and spacecraft) of the next generations and advanced technologies of rocket engine building (scramjet) and others.
There were unmanned GLA projects brought to different initial stages of implementation in the USA - Boeing X-43, Russia - "Cold" and "Needle", Germany - SHEFEX (prototype spaceplane / spacecraft), Australia - AUSROCK and others.
Hypersonic missiles and guided missile warheads
Previously, a number of projects were developed for experimental and combat cruise (for example, the X-90 in the USSR) and non-cruise (for example, the X-45 in the USSR) missiles that reach hypersonic speeds.
Technologies and Applications
GZLA can be without engines or equipped with various types of propulsion systems: liquid rocket engines (LPRE), hypersonic ramjet engines (scramjet engines), solid propellant rocket engines (SSRM) (as well as theoretically nuclear rocket engines (NRE) and others), including including a combination of such engines and boosters. That is, the term "hypersonic" implies the ability of the device to move at hypersonic speed in the air, using both engines and air in one form or another.
Given the potential of the technology, organizations around the world are conducting research into hypersonic flight and development scramjet. Apparently, the first application will be for guided military missiles, because this area requires only airplane mode in the altitude range, and not acceleration to orbital speed. Thus, the main funds for development in this area go precisely within the framework of military contracts.
Hypersonic space systems may or may not benefit from the use of stages with scramjet. Specific impulse or efficiency scramjet theoretically ranges from 1000 to 4000 seconds, while in the case of a rocket this value for 2009 does not exceed 470 seconds, which in principle means much cheaper access to space. However, this figure will decrease rapidly as the speed increases and there will also be a deterioration in lift-to-drag ratio. Significant problem of low thrust ratio scramjet to its mass, which is 2, which is about 50 times worse than this indicator for LRE. This is partly offset by the fact that the cost of compensating for gravity in actual aircraft mode is insignificant, but a longer stay in the atmosphere means greater aerodynamic losses.
Aircraft-airliner with scramjet should significantly reduce travel time from one point to another, potentially making any point on Earth within 90 minutes reachable. However, questions remain as to whether such vehicles can carry enough fuel to fly long enough distances and whether they can fly at a sufficient height to avoid the sound effects associated with supersonic flight. Also remain uncertain questions related to the total cost of such flights and the possibility of multiple use of vehicles after hypersonic flight.
Advantages and disadvantages in the case of space vehicles
The advantage of a hypersonic aircraft like X-30 consists in eliminating or reducing the amount of transported oxidant. For example, the outer tank of the MTKK Space Shuttle at launch contains 616 tons of liquid oxygen (oxidizer) and 103 tons of liquid hydrogen (fuel). The space shuttle-spaceplane itself weighs no more than 104 tons upon landing. Thus, 75% of the entire structure is the transported oxidizer. Eliminating this extra mass should lighten the craft and hopefully increase the payload share. The latter can be considered the main goal of studying scramjet along with the prospect of reducing the cost of delivering cargo into orbit.
But there are certain disadvantages:
Low thrust-to-weight ratio
liquid rocket engine LRE") is different very a high thrust ratio in relation to its mass (up to 100:1 or more), which allows rockets to achieve high performance when delivering cargo into orbit. On the contrary, the thrust ratio scramjet to its mass is about 2, which means an increase in the share of the engine in the launch mass of the device (without taking into account the need to reduce this value by at least four times due to the lack of an oxidizer). In addition, the presence of a lower speed limit scramjet and the drop in its efficiency with increasing speed determines the need to use on such space systems LRE with all their shortcomings.
The need for additional engines to achieve orbit
hypersonic ramjet have a theoretical range of operating speeds from 5-7 up to the first space velocity of 25 , but as studies have shown within the framework of the project X-30, the upper limit is set by the possibility of fuel combustion in the passing air stream and is about 17 . Thus, another additional system of jet acceleration in the non-operating speed range is required. Since the required difference in replenishment of speeds is insignificant, and the proportion Mon in the launch mass of a hypersonic aircraft is large, the use of additional rocket boosters of various types is a completely acceptable option. Research Opponents scramjet argue that any prospects of this type of apparatus can manifest itself only for single-stage space systems. Proponents of these studies argue that variants of multi-stage systems using scramjet also justified.
Return stage
Potentially, the lower part of the thermal protection of a hypersonic spacecraft must be doubled in order to return the vehicle to the surface. The use of an ablative coating can mean its loss after orbit, active thermal protection using fuel as a coolant requires the engine to function.
Price
Reducing the amount of fuel and oxidizer in the case of hypersonic vehicles means an increase in the share of the cost of the vehicle itself in total cost systems. In fact, the cost of one aircraft with scramjet can be very high compared to the cost of fuel, because the cost of aerospace equipment is at least two orders of magnitude higher than for liquid oxygen and tanks for it. Thus, devices with scramjet most justified as reusable systems. Whether the equipment can be reused in the extreme conditions of hypersonic flight is not entirely clear - all systems designed so far have not been designed to return and reuse them.
The final cost of such a device is the subject of intense discussion, because now there is no clear conviction in the prospects of such systems. Apparently, in order to be economically justified, hypersonic vehicle should have more Mon compared to a launch vehicle with the same launch mass.
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As noted earlier, since the 70s, the Design Bureau has been working on the creation of aircraft capable of performing a long flight at cruising hypersonic speeds,
By the indicated period, significant results were achieved in aerospace engineering and technologies, flights at supersonic speeds became commonplace for military aircraft, the first supersonic passenger aircraft were put into operation, manned and unmanned flights into space were carried out. Production aircraft have already appeared, flying in the atmosphere at speeds corresponding to M=3 (MiG-25, SR-71). Space descent vehicles and aerospace aircraft with big numbers M flew at very high altitudes, briefly passing through dense layers of the atmosphere at hypersonic speeds.
The general dialectic of the development of aviation technology, as well as the desire of the military-political leadership of countries on both sides of the "Iron Curtain" to get their hands on another absolute weapon, set the aviation industry of the leading aviation powers the task of creating aircraft-type aircraft with high hypersonic speeds corresponding to M = 3-10, capable of flying at altitudes of 30-35 km. Such an aircraft in terms of its technical solutions (both in terms of the power plant and in its design) should have been significantly different from modern aircraft and spacecraft. The existing types of WJE, which effectively used the atmosphere during flights at low altitudes, due to temperature restrictions, were acceptable only for aircraft with flight speeds corresponding to M=3. On the other hand, rocket engines, for which there were no such restrictions, due to the need to carry a full supply of fuel (fuel + oxidizer) on board, were irrational for long-term flights in the atmosphere.
The most rational for the accepted modes of the future hypersonic aircraft was a ramjet engine (ramjet) in combination with an accelerating engine (turbojet or rocket engine). In order to achieve high efficiency of the power plant, it was proposed to use liquid hydrogen as a fuel. For flights in the range of numbers M=3-5, the most acceptable was determined by a combined power plant containing a turbojet and a ramjet engine running on hydrocarbon fuel or liquefied natural gas (LNG). For flights with speeds exceeding M = 5-6, the most suitable was a ramjet engine on liquid hydrogen with accelerating turbojet engines on kerosene or liquid hydrogen.
Fundamental changes, taking into account the ability of the aircraft to perceive high and ultra-high temperatures for a long time in flight, required the design of such an aircraft. The choice of design had to be determined by the following factors: on the one hand, the intensity of aerodynamic heating and its duration, and on the other hand, the frequency of its use or resource.
The accumulated experience showed that for a long time the following types of structures seemed promising for aircraft subjected to intense aerodynamic heating: “hot”, heat-insulated and actively cooled. "Hot" design directly contact environment. The thermally insulated structure is protected by a heat-radiating layer or screen. The design with active cooling assumed the use of a coolant circulation system that removes heat from the skin. The main problems that needed to be solved were the weakening of thermal stresses, the reduction of warping and the increase in the service life of the structure. One of the directions that made it possible to reduce thermal stresses was the use of heat-shielding panels (corrugated, tubular, etc.). It was proposed to perform thermally insulated structures as a combination of a load-bearing structure and thermal protection. An aircraft with moderate resource requirements and with a cruising flight number of M=6 could have a "hot" design or a shielded design, or a simplified passive cooling system. For aircraft with a long resource, an active cooling system seemed necessary. The system should have used an intermediate coolant (for example, ethylene glycol) circulating in the skin channels, transferring heat through a heat exchanger to liquid hydrogen, which then had to serve as a coolant for engine components and enter the combustion chamber. The requirements for the active system could be reduced by the use of heat shields or thermal insulation.
The need to use liquid hydrogen as a fuel for a hypersonic aircraft requires the development of a highly efficient tank design and low-temperature thermal insulation (LTI). Despite the fact that since the 1960s many different designs of cryogenic tanks and NTI have been investigated both in the USA and in the USSR, none of these designs satisfies both the technical and economic requirements for a hypersonic aircraft. Thus, the designs of cryogenic tanks and NTI, developed for use in rocket technology, have a limited resource. The absence of the need for their repeated use did not require detailed studies of the NTI service life under the long-term influence of thermal cycling, vibration, climatic conditions, and aging of materials in terms of the degradation of their thermal and physical and mechanical characteristics over time.
Studies on the creation of aircraft on cryogenic fuel have shown that among the many technical problems, one of the most significant is the thermal protection of cryogenic fuel tanks.
The groundwork available at that time in the field of hypersonic aerodynamics was more significant than in the field of structures and power plants of future hypersonic aircraft. Many results of analytical and experimental studies carried out on other aviation, rocket and aerospace programs (in particular, on the MVKA) were largely applicable to hypersonic aircraft. There was still a lot to be done to determine the optimal aerodynamic configuration that would provide useful interaction between the power plant and the airframe of a hypersonic aircraft. As for conventional aircraft, it was necessary to conduct research on the use of active control systems with a decrease in static stability margins, which should have reduced the size and weight of the aircraft.
In the USSR, work on hypersonic aircraft in strike versions began in the mid-70s. Several aviation design bureaus of the country and research organizations of the aviation industry were involved in work on this promising topic.
In the Tupolev Design Bureau, work went in the following areas:
- - research and design of a hypersonic long-range attack aircraft, designed for a cruising flight speed corresponding to M = 4 - project "230" (Tu-230). Design began in 1983. Preliminary design was ready in 1985. The takeoff weight of the aircraft was determined within 180 tons. Power point was supposed to consist of four combined turbojet engines of the D-80 type. The maximum fuel supply (kerosene) is 106 tons. The cruising flight altitude is 25,000 - 27,000 m, the maximum flight range was determined at 8,000 - 10,000 km with a flight duration of 2.3 hours (aircraft length - 54.15 m, wingspan - 26.83 m);
- - research and design of a hypersonic long-range aircraft designed for a cruising flight speed corresponding to M = 6 - project "260" (Tu-260). It was an aircraft with engines operating in cruising mode on liquid hydrogen with a flight range of up to 12,000 km with 10 tons of payload;
- - research and design of a hypersonic intercontinental aircraft, designed for a cruising flight speed corresponding to M = 6, with a given maximum flight range of up to 16,000 km and with a payload of up to 20 tons - project "360" (Tu-360). Cruise altitude 30000 - 33000 m.
On the subject of "260" and "360", the Design Bureau prepared several variants of a hypersonic aircraft with a power plant with 4-6 mid-flight ramjet engines and six accelerating turbojet engines with a thrust of 22,000 kgf each. Estimated specific consumption ramjet fuel in cruising mode was 1.04 kg / kgf. The selected layout and aerodynamic scheme made it possible to obtain design quality values of 5.2 - 5.5. It was supposed to use kerosene for accelerating TRDCs.
As part of the work on hypersonic aircraft, the Design Bureau prepared a proposal for a project for a hypersonic passenger aircraft designed for cruising at a speed corresponding to M = 4.5-5 at altitudes of 28 - 32 km. The flight range was determined at 8500 - 10000 km. The number of passengers - 250 - 280 people. The power plant is combined (turbojet engine + ramjet engine), liquefied natural gas was supposed to be used as fuel.
In the course of research on hypersonic aircraft, the Design Bureau carried out extensive studies of materials and structures operating under conditions of intense aerodynamic heating. It was concluded that one of the most promising are structures with metal outer surfaces. The development of such structures required the solution of a number of problems, the main among which were the search for new structural materials with increased resistance to oxidation and increased creep strength, as well as the development of qualitatively new types of multilayer metal structures operating under conditions of large temperature gradients. The main types of such structures that were considered in the Design Bureau for hypersonic aircraft were:
- - metal heat shields to reduce heat fluxes to the main load-bearing structure, not included in the work of the load-bearing structure and designed for local transverse load;
- - panels that have both the properties of a load-bearing structure and heat-insulating properties.
One of the most effective in terms of bearing capacity when operating under heating conditions up to 250 - 500 ° C are multilayer structures made of titanium alloys.
In the course of these studies, technologies were developed for producing multilayer titanium panels with a truss filler using the SMF / DS method (superplastic molding and diffusion welding), in which, in one operation, the formation of skins, filler, blank elements from sheet material was carried out and their connection to each other into a finished monolithic structure.
Studies were carried out on low-temperature thermal protection (NTI) of fuel tanks with cryogenic fuel. Thermal protection based on screen-vacuum thermal insulation (EVTI) with a soft hermetic shell compressed by atmospheric pressure for external NTI, or hydrogen pressure for internal NTI, was considered as the most promising. The design of the tank in this case can be made both from aluminum or titanium alloys, and from composite materials. Model tanks were manufactured in the design bureau, both with NTI based on foam plastics, and with atmospheric pressure compressed EVTI. Life tests of these tanks were carried out using liquid nitrogen.
Much attention was paid to the design of cryogenic fuel tanks with a long service life. During their development, special strength standards were created to ensure the necessary tightness during operation.
All these and other works of the Design Bureau were of great importance for solving the problems of creating hypersonic aircraft, on which the Design Bureau worked in those years, as well as in the work on creating cryogenic aircraft, in particular, the experimental Tu-155, cryogenic projects passenger aircraft Tu-204K, Tu-334K, etc., on which the Design Bureau continues to work at the present time.
Today, Tupolev Design Bureau is the owner of unique technologies for cryogenic aviation technology, many of which were mastered during the period of work on VKS and hypersonic aircraft.
