When it comes to developing leading edge aviation technologies, few organizations can match the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The advanced scientific outfit was formed 50 years ago this year and has in its history introduced the world to a host of revolutionary aviation technologies such as Have Blue, which became the F-117 stealth fighter as well as the Predator and Global Hawk, unmanned air vehicles flying today in Iraq. Recently the agency's director, Tony Tether gave wide ranging congressional testimony about DARPA's broad areas of research and development that included a look at some of its more recent aviation research. This slideshow looks at 10 of the hottest developments in the field of flight gleaned from that testimony.
1. Falcon.
The Falcon program has been working to improve the US capability to promptly reach other points on the globe. A major goal of the program is to flight test key hypersonic cruise vehicle technologies in a realistic flight environment. Recently DARPA conducted low- and high-speed wind tunnel tests that validate the stability and control of the hypersonic technology vehicle. According to Darpa'S Web site the Falcon program objectives are to develop and demonstrate hypersonic technologies that will enable prompt global reach missions. This capability is envisioned to entail a reusable Hypersonic Cruise Vehicle (HCV) capable of delivering 12,000 pounds of payload at a distance of 9,000 nautical miles from CONUS in less than two hours.
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The most exciting REAL first step - X51
X51 is partially funded by DARPA (managed by AFRL) and sponsored by DDR&E and is REAL. The current highly efficient waverider configuration is fundamental to almost every airbreathing hypersonic platform proposed today.
The X51 program is, and always has been, a "national test bed" to provide 6 to 10 minutes of REAL hypersonic environment testing of any and all materials, subsystems and structure that needs be validated for most, if not all, of the current DoD and international platforms being proposed.
The difference is...X51 is very real , funded and being built. While many assume it is a missile based on it's shape, size and scale(economically sized for test demonstration that will validate scalability.... it will readily transition to MANY applications once it flies next year.
BUT... the demo vehicles will interrogate (in repeatable flight) the world's only fuel cooled 'reusable' hypersonic engine/propulsion technology in a series of envelope expansion flights. X51 has always been a demonstration of reusable fuel cooled propulsion technology to mature the path to low cost TSTO type space access .... something now identified as the economic paradigm to achieving SBSP (TRUE green energy for the world)and other economically viable commercial markets (including hypersonic transports of small to large scale).
Exciting? What could be more exciting than to know... this one is real and happening on plan... and it will make feasible many of the interesting artist renderings we see in articles like those above. Stay tuned.... metal chips are flying!