global briefing
// The Northrop Grumman-produced engine
was operated at conditions above Mach 4
for 30 minutes (Photo: US Air Force)
US engineers set
new thrust record
AEROSPACETESTINGINTERNATIONAL.COM // SEPTEMBER 2019 17
A record for the highest thrust produced
by an air-breathing hypersonic engine
has been set by engineers in the USA.
The record was set by a team at the Air
Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) in
Tennessee while conducting ground tests
using a Northrop Grumman scramjet engine.
Todd Barhorst, AFRL aerospace engineer
and lead for the Medium Scale Critical
Components program said, “AFRL, in
conjunction with Arnold Engineering
Development Complex and Northrop
Grumman, achieved over 13,000 lb of thrust
from a scramjet engine during testing at
Arnold Air Force Base.”
For regular news updates:
AerospaceTestingInternational.com
Over a nine-month period, the 18ft long
Northrop Grumman engine operated for a
total of 30 minutes above Mach 4 in simulated
conditions.
The scramjet is around the size of a
conventional turbojet engine that is used in a
fighter aircraft, but significantly larger than
the scramjet that powered the X-51A
Waverider hypersonic vehicle.
The X-51A Waverider was developed by
Boeing and tested in 2010. The unmanned
aircraft flew for six minutes, achieving speeds
of over Mach 5 for 210 seconds. The X-51A was
the first hypersonic vehicle to use
hydrocarbon fuel instead of hydrogen.
“The plan for a larger and faster hypersonic
air-breathing engine was established 10 years
ago during the X-51 test program, as the
Air Force recognized the need to push the
boundaries of hypersonic research,” Barhorst
said. “A new engine with 10-times the flow of
the X-51 would allow for a new class of
scramjet vehicles.”
Prior to the successful testing of the latest
scramjet engine, the Aerodynamic and
Propulsion Test Unit at the Arnold Air Force
Base, which hosted the research, underwent
a two-year upgrade to enable such
large-scale scramjet combustor tests in a
thermally-relevant environment. \\
/AEROSPACETESTINGINTERNATIONAL.COM
/AerospaceTestingInternational.com