Design Analysis of the High-Speed Experimental Flight Test Vehicle HEXAFLY-International

© 2015, AIAA American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. All rights reserved. Achieving airbreathing hypersonic flight is an ongoing challenge with the potential to cut air travel time and provide cheaper access to space. Waverider designs are a potential candidate for achieving hypersonic cruise or acceleration flight within the atmosphere. Current research tends to focus on key issues like thermal loading, aero-elasticity and aerothermodynamics at hypersonic speeds. Design problems in each of these areas must be solved if a hypersonic waverider design is to be viable. Preliminary conceptual design to fit the constraints of Brazilian launcher fairing, was studied by means of numerical tools in hypersonic conditions. The main results of the design analysis carried out during the preliminary phase of the study, such as vehicle aerodynamics and aerothermodynamics, re-entry trajectories, structures and mechanisms, and on the overall system, as well, are presented.