HyperSoar

HyperSoar ( Soar has the double meaning of high- rise and sail in the English / slide ) is the name given to the concept of a reconnaissance and combat aircraft with hypersonic speed that can reach from the U.S. without air refueling every point on the earth, and this in a altitude and at a speed that will make an opponent's defense virtually impossible. The aircraft will fly at about ten times the speed of sound and can carry twice the payload with the same starting weight compared to a conventional aircraft.

The concept was developed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the late 1990s. The project was long under the auspices of the engineer Preston Carter. The current state of the project is not known, as is the view of the implementation of the concept in a concrete plane, which is probably highly uncertain.

Concept

The main element of HyperSoar concept is the " bouncing " or abrupt movement of the missile along the outer edge of the atmosphere. The climb would be followed by a non-powered ( ballistic ) glide at about 60 km altitude and then back into the denser atmosphere where the oxygen-consuming engines will be ignited again and a new climb first begins at about 40 km ( 130,000 feet). This sequence will be repeated until one's destination reached. A mission from the U.S. Midwest to East Asia would require about 25 such " bounce " and last approximately 1 ½ hours. Since the ascent and descent angle it should be only 5 °, the crew would experience an acceleration of 1.5 g.

The main problem of the previously included in the studies studies for hypersonic aircraft was the change bulbs. When HyperSoar concept, the heating would greatly reduce, as an aircraft would undertake a large part of its flight outside the atmosphere, where heat would radiate in part by a stay in the "cold" area again.

Another great advantage of this concept is the use of air breather engines, while previous designs usually which provided for the use of rocket boosters as acceleration engines and scramjets as a march drive. The HyperSoar - scramjet engines would only be used to speed up, but not as a cruise engines.