Towards hypersonic aircraft
Hypersonic air transportation, meaning intercontinental trips of a few hours, is not a new ambition, yet novel hydrogen-powered engines may finally make it feasible. If so, international collaboration may be key to realising the concept. Such is the philosophy guiding the EU-funded project 'High speed key technologies for future air transport - Research & innovation cooperation scheme' (HIKARI). The 14-member consortium, including two Japanese partners, aims to unite the various hypersonic efforts of Europe and Japan. The exchanges fostered through the project are expected to facilitate progress towards improved designs and flight testing. The two-year project addresses three main axes: federating existing initiatives, addressing a future commercial market, and progressing specific technologies. The project's first year saw data collection and cooperation between partners, which helped to focus the existing technical concepts. Joint workshops and mutual exchanges led to a detailed analysis, and ultimately to a consortium definition of best practice. In particular, the project mapped the design constraints imposed by environmental and safety regulations and by commercial considerations. HIKARI partners are producing a shared understanding of the challenges involved in the proposed form of transportation. The team has produced design guidelines that should satisfy all relevant constraints, while also achieving a realistic level of performance.
Keywords
Hypersonic, aviation technology, hydrogen engine, high speed, air transport
