You can think of sodramjet as an improved version of a standard scramjet. It detonates the fuel instead of deflagrates the fuel.
You have to have mature scramjet tech before you even think about implementing sodramjet.
Chinese Hypersonic Developments (HGVs/HCMs)
- Thread starter A.Man
- Start date
You have to have mature scramjet tech before you even think about implementing sodramjet.
broadsword
Brigadier
Which is more advanced, TRRE or sodramjet?
That would be like asking what's better, a dragster or a family four wheel drive - they're each good at different things.
Although since TRRE has a ramjet/scramjet within it, that part of it can be improved by incorporating sodramjet technology. That's the "detonative combustion" part of the future TRRE diagram.
I do not know it seems like excessive complication to me.
That is going to be one heavy engine. It also does not solve the main problem with any of these high speed vehicles which is airframe heating for prolonged times while traveling at high speeds. In the 1970s there were all sorts of programs in the US for fighter aircraft and bombers like the SR-71 derived YF-12, the XF-108 Rapier, or even the XB-70 Valkyrie. Those all flew at airspeeds slightly over Mach 3 and even then some of them had issues. Namely the Valkyrie which used a metal honeycomb matrix which they never got to work. The US retried this in the Reagan era with the X-30 NASP "Orient Express" which also used honeycomb matrix metal and it didn't work then either. The metal matrix and carbon composite hydrogen tanks never worked properly. They tried composite hydrogen tanks, again, in the X-33 and it also failed.
Space launch vehicles or intercontinental missiles don't have these friction heating issues nearly as much because they quickly leave the atmosphere. The reentry vehicles, if any, are typically rather small and have to withstand the friction for a short amount of time.
I think it would be much easier to develop an YF-12/XF-108 Rapier analog or if you really want a cryogenic higher speed aircraft I think you are better off with liquid methane than liquid hydrogen. The technology for lightweight structures with liquid hydrogen is probably not quite there yet. Steel is arguably the best structure for storing liquid hydrogen even today. Maybe Al-Li is better. Honeycomb structures have been a disaster. Perhaps with modern additive manufacturing techniques it can be made to work, don't know, but it would be hard. Liquid hydrogen besides being close to absolute zero the molecules are so thin they permeate through composites and matrix materials easily.
That is going to be one heavy engine. It also does not solve the main problem with any of these high speed vehicles which is airframe heating for prolonged times while traveling at high speeds. In the 1970s there were all sorts of programs in the US for fighter aircraft and bombers like the SR-71 derived YF-12, the XF-108 Rapier, or even the XB-70 Valkyrie. Those all flew at airspeeds slightly over Mach 3 and even then some of them had issues. Namely the Valkyrie which used a metal honeycomb matrix which they never got to work. The US retried this in the Reagan era with the X-30 NASP "Orient Express" which also used honeycomb matrix metal and it didn't work then either. The metal matrix and carbon composite hydrogen tanks never worked properly. They tried composite hydrogen tanks, again, in the X-33 and it also failed.
Space launch vehicles or intercontinental missiles don't have these friction heating issues nearly as much because they quickly leave the atmosphere. The reentry vehicles, if any, are typically rather small and have to withstand the friction for a short amount of time.
I think it would be much easier to develop an YF-12/XF-108 Rapier analog or if you really want a cryogenic higher speed aircraft I think you are better off with liquid methane than liquid hydrogen. The technology for lightweight structures with liquid hydrogen is probably not quite there yet. Steel is arguably the best structure for storing liquid hydrogen even today. Maybe Al-Li is better. Honeycomb structures have been a disaster. Perhaps with modern additive manufacturing techniques it can be made to work, don't know, but it would be hard. Liquid hydrogen besides being close to absolute zero the molecules are so thin they permeate through composites and matrix materials easily.
The history of LACES i.e. Liquid Air Collection and Enrichment System is quite ancient.
The people behind Skylon used to work for the UK air research facilities and in the 1980s (I think) proposed something called HOTOL.
It was made secret and then cancelled. So the people working on it basically couldn't even take the idea to the private sector and work on it. Then they came up with Skylon.
It is kind of hard to justify something like this as a space launch vehicle. As a high speed interceptor, reconaissance platform, or bomber it might make sense.
The people behind Skylon used to work for the UK air research facilities and in the 1980s (I think) proposed something called HOTOL.
It was made secret and then cancelled. So the people working on it basically couldn't even take the idea to the private sector and work on it. Then they came up with Skylon.
It is kind of hard to justify something like this as a space launch vehicle. As a high speed interceptor, reconaissance platform, or bomber it might make sense.
Given that China has things like DF-17 and WZ-8 in active service, is there any reason to doubt that China's heat resistant material tech is anything but world leading?
Heat resistance for a missile to stay intact and heat resistance to prevent the roasting a human passenger are two very different things.
It wouldn't be surprised if it was. But the problem is AFAIK no one in the world has the right materials for prolonged flight at high Mach speeds inside the atmosphere. Even the Avangard, I think, only skips around the atmosphere and it isn't reusable.
by78
General
This is related and relevant. Excerpts from a study on a multi-layered early warning system against (trans-Pacific) hypersonic vehicles. My technical Chinese is limited, so someone please help with a translation. From what I understand, a multitude of satellites in different orbits will work in concert with ground stations and low-altitude detectors to provide early warning using a variety of radar and electro-optical detection systems.
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Shouldn’t this be a post for radars and not hypersonic?This is related and relevant. Excerpts from a study on a multi-layered early warning system against (trans-Pacific) hypersonic vehicles. My technical Chinese is limited, so someone please help with a translation. From what I understand, a multitude of satellites in different orbits will work in concert with ground stations and low-altitude detectors to provide early warning using a variety of radar and electro-optical detection systems.