During the ICAS-2014 international congress Sergey Chernyshev, Executive Director of TsAGI, and Johan Steelant, Senior Engineer of the European Space Agency’s European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESA-ESTEC), discussed the status of a project for development of a high-speed civil aircraft, TsAGI’s press-service reports.
The partners have already defined the layout of the experimental aircraft and carried out computational studies. TsAGI specialists and engineers will hold aerodynamic studies, and then manufacture a prototype of the high-speed commercial aircraft, intended for further flight tests. The tests may be carried out at Andøya Space Centrein (Norway) or the Alcântara Launch Centrein (Brazil) missile test sites.
“The high-speed civil aircraft is being developed in a close cooperation between scientific and production centers in the network of the HEXAFLY-INT (High Speed Experimental Fly Vehicles — International) international project funded under the “Transport” (Aeronautics) section of the 6th and 7th Framework Programs of the EU. The following Russian, European and Australian organizations are taking part in the project: TsAGI, CIAM, LII, MIPT, EADS-IW, DLR, ONERA, CIRA, USyD, UNSW, USQ, etc. The Dutch scientific center ESTEC is the coordinator of the project”, TsAGi noted.
Executive Director of TsAGI, Sergey Chernyshev, stressed the importance of Russia’s participation in the HEXAFLY-INT project: “International programs are of great importance for us. They allow us to “synchronize watches” with our foreign colleagues and improve our technologies. TsAGI is a strategic partner in the HEXAFLY-INT project and it plays an active role in development of the concept of the high-speed civil aircraft proposed by the European scientists. It is expected that this aircraft will fly at a speeds of over 7000-8000 km/h (Mach 7 or 8). This means that we have to solve a wide range of problems related to materials, hydrogen powerplant and its integration with the airframe, as well as achieving a high level of the aircraft’s aerodynamic efficiency. The results of this research form a basis for development of the national aviation of the future.”
HEXAFLY-INT is the project for development of a passenger aircraft powered by hydrogen engines capable of flying at high speeds; it was launched in April 2014 and will be implemented by December 2019. In the network of this project a number of experimental and computational studies will be carried out. TsAGI scientists will perform computational studies and ground tests and manufacture an experimental model for flight testing.
The European Space Research and Technology Center (ESTEC) coordinates the space potential, financial and intellectual resources of its 19 European member states, as well as international programs and events. Its major area of activity is the implementation of EU space programs. ESA-ESTEC is a technical center of European science, responsible for implementation of most Western aerospace projects.
