Hy-V

The Hy-V Scramjet Flight Experiment is a research project being led by the University of Virginia, the goal of which is to better understand dual-mode scramjet combustion by analyzing and comparing wind tunnel and flight data. The work is being conducted with industrial, academic and government collaborators. The Hy-V Scramjet Flight Experiment is a research project being led by the University of Virginia, the goal of which is to better understand dual-mode scramjet combustion by analyzing and comparing wind tunnel and flight data. The work is being conducted with industrial, academic and government collaborators. The goal of the Hy-V project is to conduct a flight experiment of a scramjet engine at Mach 5 using a sounding rocket. Currently the project is in its design and test phase and plans to launch a flight test in the future. In a dual-mode scramjet, combustion can either occur at subsonic or supersonic speeds, or a mixture of the two. The experiment will be performed at speed of Mach 5 because significant effects on mode transition occur at this speed. In this particular case, the mode transition will occur inside the scramjet when the vehicle's airspeed reaches Mach 5. Teams of students, both undergraduate and graduate, and faculty from the member universities of the Virginia Space Grant Consortium are involved in the project and are collaborating with aerospace industry, NASA, and the Department of Defense. The current payload design will enable researchers to conduct two separate experiments by having two separate scramjet ducts. One will resemble the geometry of the University of Virginia's supersonic wind tunnel and the other will be a variation of this geometry. The data recorded while in-flight will be used to better understand dual-mode scramjet (DMSJ) combustion and to make better numerical methods of predicting mode-transition processes. It will also provide a set of comparative data to help understand and isolate differences with wind tunnel data.