Hyper -X Hot Structures Design and Comparison With Flight Data

The Hyper -X (X -43A) program’s goal was to conduct flight experiments demonstrating scramjet performance and operability under controlled powered free -flight conditions at Mach 7 and 10. The Mach 7 and Mach 10 flights were successfully completed on March 27, 2004 and November 16, 2004, respectively. Thermocouples in the hot structures (nose, hori zontal tail, and vertical tail) recorded the response of these components in a challenging thermal environment. This paper will present a comparison of the preflight and postflight thermal analyses performed for design and risk assessment with the recorded flight data.