The United States, which worked on the mission for nearly three decades, is the only nation to have flown the Scramjet in air.
BANGALORE: India's dream of a lighter and cheaper space transport vehicle has got the first boost.
Space scientists have completed ground tests of the homegrown supersonic combustion ramjet (Scramjet) that may eventually lead to building a hypersonic plane by the country.
The air-breathing engine has achieved a speed of six mach (a mach is the speed of sound), for seven seconds, which means it can fly three times faster than existing fighter and consume lesser fuel than the current aircraft.
The United States, which worked on the mission for nearly three decades, is the only nation to have flown the Scramjet in air. Others in the race are China, Russia, Japan, Australia and Europe, but are a long way like India to near a flight demonstration.
"The tests were conducted over a period of two years. A national committee has certified the ground tests," an Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) official said on Tuesday.
ISRO scientists at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) in Thiruvananthapuram will attempt in the next three years to fly the Scramjet in atmosphere. The air-breathing engine will be released from a two-stage sounding rocket and tested to fly at speed of over six mach.
Air-breathing rocket systems use oxygen from the atmosphere, burn it with the stored on- board fuel to fly faster in contrast to the conventional chemical rocket systems that carry both the oxygen and the fuel on-board, ISRO said.
As a result, the air breathing systems are lighter and more efficient, which reduces costs of hurling a satellite or sending a man to space.
Missile scientists at the Defence Research and Development Laboratories (DRDL) in Hyderabad are also attempting to fly an indigenous hypersonic plane by 2008, "We are also conducting ground tests of the Scramjet. Our aim is to fly a demonstrator by 2008," DRDO chief controller R&D Prahlada told DNA.
DRDO has expertise in air breathing engine technology (Ramjet) at sub-sonic speed in its surface-to-air Akash missile programme, but going supersonic is a tougher task.
They have to build materials that can withstand the heat at such speed, mixing of high-speed air with fuel, stability and retaining the flame for a distance. This is a challenge even for the US.
The others include ones related to the mixing of very high speed air (velocity around 1.5 km/s) with fuel, achieving stable ignition and flame holding in addition to ensuring efficient combustion, within the practical length of the combustor.
ISRO believes that a hypersonic airplane may drastically cut costs of carrying a load to space at about $ 500 to $ 1000 per kg, as against the current costs of $ 12,000 to $ 15,000 per kg.
"To bring costs down, we need a two pronged approach (a) the systems are made recoverable and reusable (b) adopt more efficient propulsion systems like air-breathing rockets," ISRO said.
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