Structural Prospects for Hypersonic Air Vehicles

Abstract

THE purpose of this paper is to review the major structural design problems common to all hypersonic air vehicles and describe some of the current research results to indicate the structures and materials technology produced during the initial phase of a new era in aeronautics. To further limit the scope of the discussion and to focus it on a particular application, these structural problems will be discussed in relation to a hypersonic commercial air transport that might be ready for intercontinental airline service 15 to 20 years' hence.