The U.S. military plans to conduct a test flight of a large rocket-powered aircraft capable of flying at speeds 20 times the speed of sound in three years, officials have stated.
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According to Space.com, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has plans to develop and flight-test a supersonic aircraft called the X-Plane, capable of speeds up to Mach 20, in 2016. The aircraft will reach speeds of 20,900 km/h, enabling the U.S. military to access any location on Earth in less than an hour.
Moreover, this aircraft can be recovered, meaning the U.S. government will be able to recall the aircraft back to its point of origin, according to DARPA.
The X-plane can reach speeds of Mach 20.
To implement this ambitious project, DARPA has launched a new program called Integrated Hypersonics (IH). IH will research the application of previous defense studies to the X-Plane.
“Currently, we do not have a complete hypersonic system solution,” a DARPA representative explained. Programs like IH will help leverage past investments while minimizing risks for the projects.
The IH program will primarily focus on five areas: thermal protection, aerodynamics, guidance, navigation and control (GNC), range/payload, and propulsion systems.
Among these, thermal protection systems are a key requirement for hypersonic flights. Aircraft gliding through the atmosphere at Mach 20 will endure temperatures of up to 1927 degrees Celsius, hot enough to melt stainless steel.
At the same time, advanced aerodynamics and GNC technologies will enable the X-plane to make real-time adjustments in response to any changes in flight conditions. The type of propulsion system that the X-plane will use is not simply off-the-shelf rockets designed for space missions. Instead, DARPA is researching a completely new integrated propulsion system.
DARPA has conducted various tests on hypersonic aircraft in recent years. For instance, the agency has flown two prototype aircraft, HTV-2, in the last two years. In the most recent test in August 2011, the HTV-2 achieved Mach 20 but only maintained that speed in the atmosphere for 9 minutes.
