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NASA SELECTS ALLIED TEAM TO PROVIDE HYPERSONIC
VEHICLES
NASA has selected Allied Aerospace Industries of Tullahoma,
Tenn., to provide three flight-ready demonstrator vehicles that
will fly approximately 5,000 miles per hour or seven times the
speed of sound. The multi-year project, called X-43C, will expand
the hypersonic flight envelope for air-breathing engines.
The cost-plus-fixed-fee completion type contract carries
performance incentives and is valued at nearly $150 million over 66
months. The base activity covers all work through completion of the
Preliminary Design Review, and the optional effort covers the final
design, hardware fabrication and all associated support
activities.
The X-43C is the next logical step, following the current
Hyper-X (X-43A) vehicle that aims at demonstrating short duration
scramjet powered flight at Mach 7 and Mach 10. The X-43C will
demonstrate free flight of a scramjet-powered vehicle with
acceleration capability from Mach 5 to Mach 7, as well as operation
of a hydrocarbon fuel-cooled scramjet.
NASA's Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va., is leading a
combined U.S. Air Force/industry team in the design and development
of the X-43C demonstrator vehicle and its propulsion system. The
engine, which will be provided by the Air Force, will be a
dual-mode scramjet capable of running as a ramjet or scramjet.
Allied Aerospace, Flight Systems Division, will team with Pratt
& Whitney, West Palm Beach, Fla.; Boeing Phantom Works,
Huntington Beach, Calif.; and RJK Technologies, Blacksburg, Va.
Work will be performed primarily in Tullahoma and West Palm
Beach, although some contract work will also take place at
Huntington Beach, Blacksburg and St. Louis, Mo., and at Langley and
NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif.
Future air-breathing space access vehicles offer advantages over
conventional rocket-powered vehicles that must carry all of the
oxidizer needed to burn their fuel. Air-breathing engine-powered
vehicles obtain oxygen from the atmosphere in flight. By minimizing
the need to carry oxidizer, smaller and more efficient vehicles can
be designed for space access missions.
"When fully developed, these advanced propulsion systems will
offer increased safety, payload capacity and economy of operation
for future, reusable space access vehicles," said Paul Moses,
manager of the X-43C project. "The X-43C project will validate
advanced technologies, design tools and test techniques that will
enable design of such vehicles in the future," he said.
For the three demonstration flights, a Pegasus-derived rocket
booster will be air-launched by a carrier aircraft to boost the
X-43C demonstrator vehicles to Mach 5 at approximately 80,000 feet.
The X-43C will separate from the booster and continue to accelerate
to Mach 7 under its own power and autonomous control.
Flights will originate from Dryden/Edwards Air Force Base,
Calif. Flight paths of the vehicles will be over water within the
Pacific Test Range.
For more information about NASA on the Internet, visit
www.nasa.gov
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