The Hindu Business Line : Hypersonic travel may become a reality

FLY from Hyderabad to New Delhi in 20 minutes flat! Sounds fiction today, doesn't it. But wait, aeronautical engineers are optimistic that it is in the realm of the possible, in the near future.

Today, the flying time between the two destinations is 120 minutes by the available commercial aircrafts. Indian defence scientists have firmed up a project that aims to design and build a Mach 6.5-7 speed aircraft that can turn this fiction into fact.

The French Concorde aircraft, which was decommissioned sometime ago reached Mach 2 speeds, which is about 2,000 km/hr.

"It is not the speed of travel that matters but the sudden, high-speed acceleration that is required during take-off and the deceleration during landing, wherein all the forces are felt by the passenger," explained Dr Prahlada, Director of the Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL), which is working on such projects.

For example, a space shuttle travels at very high speeds.

Similarly, the man landing on the moon or the recent Chinese manned mission to space, are all good feedback on the familiarisation of space travel at many Mach speeds (faster than the speed of sound), Dr Prahlada told Business Line.

Not just this, the future aviation scenario would include the development of a personal aircraft like the personal computer; an environment-friendly aircraft run on fuel cells and a silent aircraft.

These challenging technological projects are engaging the attention of aeronautical engineers worldwide.

India is among the countries in the fray and positive developments are expected in the next 20-30 years, Dr Prahlada said.

The DRDL has embarked on a project called Hypersonic Technology Demonstrator Vehicle (HSTDV), which will use air-breathing technologies that would lead to development of hypersonic cruise vehicles, which can carry and deliver different payloads at Mach 6.5-7 (many times the speed at which sound travels).

"We are hoping to get a clearance from the Centre in the next few months for the Rs 250 crore - Rs 260 crore project. We will start with the technology demonstrator, including development trials, which would take three years," he said.

A network of experts at the academic institutes, national laboratories and other Defence Research and Development Organisation labs has already been established to give a thrust to this frontier technology area.

Many developed countries are actively pursuing hypersonic air breathing technologies, which have potential applications in military, space and civilian areas. They also promise low-cost possibilities and could be `re-usable', the DRDL chief said.

The HSTDV project aims to demonstrate air-breathing cruise flight at hypersonic speed of Mach 6.5-7, using an airframe integrated scramjet engine, which in turn would use hydrocarbon fuel that is easy to handle.

Since the hypersonic cruise vehicles encounter hostile environment, which includes high surface temperature during flight, they need special material that can withstand and a thermal protection.

Hence, a range of carbon-composites, nickel based super alloys, niobium alloys and high thermal conducting copper alloy etc. need to be developed.

The network of institutes is expected to chip in with their respective capabilities to put them together, Dr Prahlada said.

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