Mach Hydrocarbon-Fueled Scramjet Flight Experiment: The HIFiRE Flight 2 Project

Abstract

The Hypersonic International Flight Research Experimentation (HIFiRE) program is a collaborative international effort designed to study basic hypersonic phenomena through flight experimentation. On 1 May 2012, the HIFiRE Flight 2 project successfully flew a hydrocarbon-fueled, Mach 8 scramjet experiment and demonstrated the ability to fly an accelerating, constant dynamic pressure trajectory consistent with a scramjet-powered flight vehicle using unguided sounding rocket techniques. The project goals of capturing high-quality flight data from a research scramjet operating through dual-to-scram mode transition up to and beyond Mach 8 were achieved. HIFiRE Flight 2 is unique in its contribution to scramjet research, providing a reference dataset to the hydrocarbon scramjet community while maturing a novel and reduced-cost strategy for performing similar future experiments. This paper describes the programmatic approach, the overall scramjet flight test experiment mission objectives, and the flight test strategy. It also includes an overview of launch system and payload hardware, and brief discussions of flight activities, flight data, and experimental results. Preliminary results from flight indicate a fully successful mission and experiment. Based on evaluations of data collected during the project, including ground test, flight test, and multiple analysis activities, all project-level scientific objectives have been successfully achieved.