A brand new experimental hypersonic cruise vehicle may very well be flying as soon as next summer under an initiative from the U.S. Defense Innovation Unit (DIU).
The Dart AE high-speed test aircraft is being developed by the Australian company Hypersonix Launch Systems following the award of a prototype contract by the DIU.
DART AE is a 9.8-foot-long (3 meters), 660-pound (300 kilograms) scramjet-powered technology demonstrator that may reach speeds of as much as Mach 7, in response to the corporate’s website. (Mach 1 is the speed of sound, which is about 767 mph, or 1,235 kph, at sea level. “Hypersonic” generally refers to flight that achieves speeds of Mach 5 or higher.)
The vehicle could now be ready as early as next summer as a part of Pentagon efforts to spice up its hypersonics flight-test cadence, C4ISRNET reported.
The DIU, which operates under the U.S. Department of Defense, describes itself as a corporation focused on accelerating the adoption of economic and dual-use technology to unravel operational challenges at speed and scale.
The Pentagon is pursuing research and development of hypersonic defense programs. As a part of this, the DIU has rolled out the high-cadence testing capabilities (HyCAT) project, which brings opportunities for industrial corporations to develop reusable and low-cost test vehicles and reduce strain on DoD resources.
Lt. Col. Nicholas Estep, HyCAT program manager, told C4ISRNET that the DIU is refining the main points of the mission, including the flight conditions, the launch provider and the placement for next yr’s first fully integrated, autonomous flight of DART AE.
Fenix Space, Inc., situated in San Bernardino, California, and Rocket Lab, situated in Long Beach, California, have also been awarded DIU contracts for a reusable tow-launch platform and the Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron (HASTE) rocket, respectively.
