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Saturday, July 3, 2004
Friday, July 9, 2004
Pulse Detonation
Scramjets/Ramjets
More on the above link
Scramjets, which obtain their oxygen from the atmosphere, are one possible solution to the fuel vs. payload problem. Completed, the X-43 would be the first craft to use such an engine. A working scramjet engine would enable an RLV to attain high speeds while still in the atmosphere, using the atmosphere's oxygen for the reaction. Current launch vehicle engines require the vehicle to carry all of its own oxygen, so a scramjet engine would enable a huge reduction in fuel mass.
Both ramjets and scramjets operate on the same basic principle as a jet. As the plane flies, air flows through the engine and is compressed. Fuel is added to the compressed air and the mixture is ignited. The expanding gases are shaped and directed by the engine's nozzle and propel the plane forward. A jet engine, however, uses fans to compress the air. Ramjets and scramjets rely on the forward motion of the vehicle alone. Ramjets and scramjets can produce no static thrust; the vehicle must already be moving fast enough to compress the air before these engines can operate.
this looks like it helps explain all the F-19 stuff that was being talked about when the project started.
Back in the 1980's there were rumors of a Top Secret Stealth Project known as the Covert Survivable In-weather Reconnassance and Strike (CSIRS)! While I know very little about this plane, I know it was supposed to be a stealth plane that was design Primarly for all weather Reconnassance Missions, with a secondary precision strike mission. I though that it had something to do with the F-117, but I still found a refrence to it in 1994 after the F-117 was Declassified. The Refrence said the program might have used the code name: SPECTER. Also, The F-117 does not have a Reconnassance capabilty that I'm aware of. Does anyone know what this is? Does Lockheed (or someone else) have a stealth plane that's more secret then the F-117 with a simular but Covert mission?
A couple interesting patents among many others:
United States Patent 5,937,635
August 17, 1999
Pulse Detonation Igniter For Pulse Detonation Chambers
United States Patent 6,439,503
August 27, 2002
Pulse Detonation Cluster Engine
Since the last time a Pulse Detonation Engine delta-winged supersonic aircraft was observed heading to California across land was in December 1999, perhaps the propulsion system has fallen out of favor.
It could be that this propulsion won't be brought back until manned space travel beyond low Earth orbit returns to the space program. An engineer at an air show in Arizona, who works at Edwards AFB for a defense contractor explained to me that PDE was not very efficient for use on aircraft.
Three advanced aeronautical concepts were selected by NASA for its Revolutionary Concepts (REVCON) project, which encourages the development of ideas that could lead to revolutionary experimental planes. The selected concepts are AeroCraft, a piloted, partially buoyant airship; the Blended Wing Body, a powered, remote-piloted flying wing; and the Pulse Detonation Engine, a design geared toward lower maintenance and operating costs.
Originally posted on the X-30 NASP Thread
Now the specifications I've managed to scrape up are as follows:
Speed: Roughly Mach 23 or 17,549 MPH (sorry don't do km/h)
Altitude: out of atmosphere 200,000+ feet
Engine type: Scram Jet or Pulse Detonation Wave Engines
Main Mission: Reconnasaince
Armament: None
Aurora XST side:
Adding a link first for an error made in a previous post: www.fas.org...
quote:
specifications found on BlackVault
Speed: Maximum operational speeds are reported to be in the range of Mach 5-8.
Ceiling: May have an operational altitude of 150,000 feet (28.4 miles) or higher.
Engine type: Scram jet or Pulse Detonation Wave Engines
Armament: Possibly Phoenix Missiles
Main Mission: Reconnasaince
All together specifications
Speed: Roughly Mach 15 or 11,445 MPH
Ceiling: 185,000+ feet
Engine type: Scram jet or Pulse Detonation Wave Engines
Armament: Possibly Phoenix Missiles
Main Mission: Reconnasaince
Average the two:
Speed: 14,497 MPH or Mach 19
Ceiling: Out of Atmosphere
Engines: Scram/Ramjets or PDWE's
Armament: Probably Phoenix Missiles
Most Likely to be a recon/interceptor.
Originally posted on NAPIA
XR-7 Thunderdart
The XR-7 Thunderdart, lately a non-thought-of plane since the recent sightings of Aurora, has a believed though of Mach 25 capability... a fighter version of Aurora so-to-speak is said to be capable of carrying Phoenix Air-to-Air Missiles. Very few reports are received on the Thunderdart due to this not much is known on this �Black Project�. However, existence of the fighter has been proved due to a display of the sequence of the fighter displayed in the USAF intelligence.
Area 51 Information
Type: single-seat air combat fighter and reconnaissance fighter
Powerplant: Pulse Detonation Wave Engines; uses LO3 and LH3 type fuel (Liquid Oxygen and Liquid Hydrogen)
Performance: around 10,290 MPH at stratosphere, 15,349 MPH at sea level; service ceiling 30,000 feet above outer atmosphere; serving range about 40,000 miles
Weight: N/A
Dimensions: N/A
Armaments: 24 Phoenix AAMs (Air-to-Air Missiles); one Mk Bm 28 free-fall bomb