Hypersonic aircraft flying at five times the speed of sound tested successfully

Scientists of the United States and Australia have successfully tested hypersonic aircraft technology, which they said could “revolutionise international flight.” Conducted on May 7, 2009, the hypersonic test flight, which travelled at over five times the speed of sound, was the first of 10 tests to be conducted at the remote Woomera desert test range in southern Australia.

Warren Snowdon, Australia’s Minister of Defence Science, told reporters that the programme – named Hypersonic International Flight Research
Experimentation (HIFiRE) – was “investigating hypersonics technology and its potential for next-generation aeronautics.”

The Hypersonic International Flight Research Experimentation flights are a part of a joint research programme between the Australian Defence Science
and Technology Organisation (DSTO) and the United States Air Force Research Laboratory.

Hypersonics, explained Snowdon, is the study of flight exceeding approximately five times the speed of sound, and this trial successfully tested the flight and mission control systems that would be used in future experiments.

The test vehicle was shot into space aboard a rocket launched from Woomera test range and then dived back into the atmosphere to test the
hypersonic flight technology.

“Using nitrogen gas valves as thrusters to manoeuvre the test vehicle in space, the test vehicle was turned onto the correct heading and elevation for
re-entry into the atmosphere as designed,” Snowdon said.

According to Snowdon, the scientists obtained a wealth of new data from the hypersonic test flight.

He said that the HIFiRE programme could boast of significant achievements in the fields of design, assembly, and pre-flight testing of hypersonic vehicles as well as the design of complex avionics and flight systems.

He said the trial had demonstrated that hypersonic flights could become a reality in “the not-too-distant future, giving Australia huge economic and
strategic benefits.”

During the trials of similar technology in 2007, the travelling time from Sydney to London could be reduced to as little as 2 hours for the 17,000-kilometre (10,600-mile) flight.

Dr Ken Anderson, chief of the Air Vehicles Division of the Australian Defence Science and Technology Organisation, was quoted by the website

news.com.au as saying that hypersonic air travel would involve “futuristic air vehicles criss-crossing the planet at four times the altitude of today’s jets,
at hypersonic velocity.”

The Hypersonic International Flight Research Experimentation (HIFiRE) project, which costs about $70 million, is one of the biggest collaborative
ventures carried out between the United States and Australia.