HyperSoar

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HyperSoar ( Soar has the double meaning of soaring high and sailing / gliding ) is the name for the concept of a reconnaissance and combat aircraft with hypersonic speed that can reach any point on earth from the USA without air refueling, and all in one Altitude and at a speed that is supposed to make an opposing defense practically impossible. The aircraft should fly at about ten times the speed of sound and, with the same take-off weight, be able to transport twice the payload compared to a conventional aircraft.

The concept was developed by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the late 1990s. For a long time, the project was led by the engineer Preston Carter . The current status of the project is not known, as is the prospect of implementing the concept in a specific aircraft, which is probably highly uncertain.

concept

The main element of the hypersoar concept is the “hopping” or jumping movement of the missile along the outer edge of the atmosphere. The climb would first go to about 40 km (130,000 feet), followed by an unpowered ( ballistic ) glide to about 60 km and then back into the denser atmosphere, where the oxygen-consuming engines are reignited and a new climb begins. This process is repeated until the destination is reached. A mission from the American Midwest to East Asia would require about 25 such "hops" and take about 1½ hours. Since the angle of ascent and descent should only be 5 °, the crew would experience an acceleration of no more than 1.5 g.

The main problem of the studies for hypersonic aircraft included in the investigations so far was heat generation. With the Hypersoar concept, the heating would be greatly reduced, since an aircraft would complete a large part of its flight outside the atmosphere and there would also radiate heat in part by staying in the "cold" area.

Another great advantage of the concept is the use of air-breathing thrusters , while previous designs typically used rocket boosters as acceleration thrusters and scramjets as cruise engines . The hypersoar scram jets would only be used for acceleration, not as cruise engines.

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