Lately, every day, you come across messages on hypersound: "The warheads of the missiles maneuver, fly at hypersound and at intercontinental range …" "A hypersonic ramjet engine is being tested in Russia!" And so on and so forth.
A fantastic picture immediately rises before the eyes of a common man in the street - hypersonic planes take off and hit with their missiles, again on hypersonic, intercontinental targets … Both the planes themselves and their scramjet missiles are invisible and not intercepted.
Is it so? Let's see
The article came across again "Hypersonic, direct-flow, flies" in "Technology - Youth" from 1991.
The article says: “The scramjet engine, or, as they say,“hypersonic direct-flow”, will allow to fly from Moscow to New York in 2-3 hours, leave the winged machine from the atmosphere into space. An aerospace plane will not need a booster plane, as for Zenger, or a launch vehicle, as for shuttles and Buran, - delivery of cargo to orbit will cost almost ten times cheaper. The article was written by Yuri SHIKHMAN and Vyacheslav SEMENOV, researchers at CIAM.
Of course, I was well acquainted with both of them, as I participated with them in many works on the subject of the institute. Including on the subject of scramjet. Although my part of the work did not belong to the main and main ones, it was nevertheless necessary and important. I was involved in this work in the year 84, as a young specialist and junior researcher. At that time, Ruvim Isaevich Kurziner was still the leader on all the work on the "Cold" theme at CIAM.
Experienced scramjet engine on the subject of "Cold", or product 057, as part of a hypersonic flying laboratory (HLL), was a research object, the main task of which was to demonstrate the possibility of combustion of a fuel-air mixture at a supersonic velocity of the working fluid in the combustion chamber circuit. It was not possible to simulate all combustion modes on the ground, so it was decided to investigate such a problem in real flight conditions.
An anti-aircraft missile 5В28 of the С-200В (SA-5) complex was used as a carrier, accelerator and simulating flight modes for the study. Instead of the head part of which the GLL was docked with a scramjet engine with a fuel tank and control and maintenance systems.
The first flight of the GLL with a scramjet was carried out on November 28, 1991. In the first flight test of the scramjet engine, the maximum number of M was 5, 8, the engine worked for a total of 28 s, during the flight it turned on automatically twice. Thus, for the first time in the world under flight test conditions, the performance of a hypersonic ramjet engine (magazine "Engine" No. 6 of 2006).
During 1991-98, about 8 launches were made (including throw ones). In addition to Russian specialists, the French took part in the studies of the experimental scramjet engine - in 1992 and 1995 under contracts with the French National Science Center (ONERA), and in 1997 and 1998 - the Americans, under a contract with the US National Space Agency (NASA).
So, more than 20 years have passed. What we have?
Are there hypersonic aircraft, that is, flying at hyperspeed (M> 5)? There is
First, there were the Buran orbiters and the shuttle.
Returning from orbit "Buran", for example, plans about half an hour in hypersound at a distance of about 8000 km from an altitude of 100 km to 20 km.
Tactical and technical characteristics of OK "Buran" in the descent mode at hypersonic speeds:
• Launch weight - 105 tons
• Distance to the landing strip - 8270 km
• Speed on the descent trajectory - 7, 592 … 0, 520 km / s (27.330-1.872 km / h) approx. 27-1, 8Max
• Range of descent altitude - 100 … 20 km
Let's conduct a "thought experiment". Is it possible to turn this entire landing profile of the "hypersonic orbital spacecraft" "Buran" back?
Can!
Only for this we need a carrier rocket "Energia".
"And if on the GPRD?" - the reader will ask. Can. But to do this, in order to ensure that the GPJE enters the mode, first, "push" the entire system with something similar to the PRD, i.e. accelerating "powder". And then bring it to a circular orbit, "feeding" the engines with stored oxygen or on a clean rocket engine. As a result, the "savings" on the oxidizer, when using atmospheric oxygen on the scramjet engine, will be well, something about 20%. But then there are so many difficulties that God forbid!
Did the engineers conceive of this kind of "economical systems" using outboard air? Yes, as much as necessary! The same "Zenger" and "Hotol".
And … let's put it modestly - early versions of the now world famous Topol ICBM. Yes, indeed! This whole system was called "Gnome"
"Gnome" is a three-stage intercontinental ballistic missile equipped with a first-stage ramjet solid-propellant propulsion engine, second and third stage solid-propellant engines and an accelerator. The design was carried out from the beginning of the 60s at the Mechanical Engineering Design Bureau (Kolomna) under the leadership of Boris Shavyrin.
Maximum firing range, km 11000
Launch weight, t 29
Payload weight, kg 470
Missile length, m 16, 14
Number of steps 3
Later, the designer of MIT A. D. Nadiradze, relying on his experience of creating a mobile OTR "Temp", proposed an ICBM project on conventional solid-propellant engines. He was supported by the leadership of the Ministry of Defense Industry, and as a result we received a 45-ton mobile ground intercontinental "Temp-2S". Further, its modernization and improvement - "Pioneers" (RSD) and "Topol" (MBR) … Many see this as his insidiousness (45 tons instead of the promised 29). Nevertheless, the same could have happened with the "Gnome". Calculations are one thing - practical implementation is quite another!
Supersonic intercontinental cruise missile "Tempest" ("product 351"), which is closest to the required parameters of an aircraft with a scramjet engine.
Length, m - 20, 396
Wingspan, m - 7, 746
Height, m - 6, 642
Wing area, m2 - 44.6
Launch weight, kg - 98.280
Mass of the initial sustainer stage, kg - 33.522
Warhead weight, kg - 3403
Cruising speed, km / h - 3300
Flight altitude, km - 18 - 25, 5
Range, km - 7830
Purely theoretically, this system, using modern materials, fuels, solid-propellant "accelerators", can be accelerated, probably up to Mach 5. But this is the question: will it have super superiority over the existing ICBMs?
The time to reach the target at the maximum range will be approximately 1.5 hours (ICBM - 30 minutes).
There will be some benefits - for example, detection lag.
ICBMs are detected quite quickly, firstly, the initial torch, and secondly, the high ascending altitude of the ballistic trajectory (up to 1600 km).
Although our last "Topol-M" and "Yarsy" and others of the same family, they say, can fly on other, for example, quasi-styled circular routes (100-200 km), that's why their power-to-weight ratio and mass are significantly different from skinny "Minutemans" optimized for ballistic trajectories.
In this regard, I recall the caustic admiration of a NASA (or Pentagon) rocket engineer - "de, the Russians do not know how to make rockets, they even have modern ones that are heavier and larger than ours, developed in the 70s." The exclamations, however, quickly died down. Apparently, more qualified comrades explained to him what was the matter …
So, the main question with hypersonic missile aircraft is - are they needed, or will we refrain for now?
As we have seen, rockets and orbital ships have long been implemented, though not on a scramjet engine.
And about the planes …
For more than 20 years, the military have kept the M <3.5 (SR-71, Sotka, MiG-31). A further increase in speed does not imply additional advantages, all the same, anti-aircraft missiles on solid-fuel engines will get it if they intercept ICBM heads and satellites on the 1st space.
About civilian liners …
It seems to me that such fast airliners were needed before the era of the Internet. Why, you ask? And because now businessmen-merchants and officials of all stripes do not need to rush so rapidly across continents-continents: it will still not work faster than electronic signatures and videoconferences.
And if, nevertheless, someone is impatient - to see a newborn son or to launch a plan for his birth - they will have to moderate their agility. And slowly "vomit", as my friends, the narcissistic egoists of the BMW brand say, with an evening horse in the form of a mainline or intercontinental "watermelon" or "Boeing" with an average speed of 900 km / h, tea, we are late for the next world …
But hypersonic engines - scramjet engines, the main distinguishing feature of which is the supersonic outflow of the working fluid through the combustion chamber, have not yet been created.
Maybe someone will succeed. Moreover, from developers who were not warned that it was impossible, and they, without knowing it, took and implemented a fantastic project. The history of science and technology also knows such examples …
* In engine building, two types of unstable operation of jet engines are distinguished - "surge" and "itching" at the inlet. "Itching" - high-frequency air pulsation in the area of supercritical modes of operation of the engine inlet diffuser, is perceived as a characteristic itching sound. In contrast, “surge” is a lower frequency vibration. Itching is caused by flow disruptions in the duct behind the diffuser throat.
