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The first two launches of the Hyshot/Scramjet Project took place; Hyshot I in the October of 2001 and Hyshot II in the July of 2002.
As I had always recorded launch activities from Woomera with limited editions of special commemorative envelopes since 1987 I decided to continue this practice for the Hyshot / Scramjet series of launches. I therefore went ahead and produced a limited edition of 100 commemorative envelopes for the first of the Hyshot / Scramjet projects. I affixed a special issue of "Outback” stamps to these envelopes which I thought were particularly suited to events such as this.
The Hyshot I/ Scramjet launch trial was scheduled to take place on Wednesday 24th October 2001 but owing to unforeseen problems this launch was delayed on two occasions and was rescheduled to take place at 0930 hrs the following Tuesday the 30th October. There was a delay and the time was set for 1130 hrs but finally at 1301 hrs it lifted off. Unfortunately the rocket (a Terrier/ Orion M70) developed a booster problem and did not attain the required height for the Scramjet to perform the project requirement. The rocket would have needed to climb to about 368 kilometres for the Scramjet project to have any chance of success but due to a booster problem with the rocket it only reached about 100 kilometres.
It was reported that this attempt to achieve supersonic combustion in the launch of the HyShot experiment has not succeeded. However the HyShot research team say they had recovered valuable data from yesterday's rocket launch that will assist them in future attempts to flight test air-breathing scramjets. Project leader, Dr Allan Paull, said he was also pleased the scramjet payload fitted onto Terrier Orion rockets, survived the journey until it returned to earth. Although we didn't achieve all that we set out to achieve, we succeeded in gathering valuable data, and we're encouraged by the fact the payload survived one hell of a wild ride," Dr Paull said. The experiment at the Department of Defence's Woomera Prohibited Area, 500 kilometres north of Adelaide, was not successful because the rocket experienced flight anomalies prior to the scramjet experiment.
The HyShot Scramjet is designed to operate at Mach 7.6. It ingests air through a specially-designed inlet and mixes this with hydrogen. At hypersonic speeds, the hydrogen and atmospheric oxygen then combust spontaneously to deliver thrust like a conventional jet engine. The only exhaust product is water. Unlike conventional rocket engines, which must carry all of their fuel internally, a scramjet-powered vehicle must only carry hydrogen. Therefore, in theory, a scramjet could be much smaller than a conventional rocket engine with equivalent power. Scramjets are also considered a potential enabling technology for reusable launch vehicles.
On July 30th 2002 a safe and successful launch of a Terrier Orion Mk 70 rocket containing a scramjet payload was held at Department of Defence’s Woomera Instrumented Range, 500km north of Adelaide, in the South Australian desert.
It was reported that HyShot II Launch was successful University of Queensland researchers say of the HyShot experiment at the Woomera Prohibited Range this date. Then on August 16th 2002 University of Queensland researchers claimed success for the worlds first flight test of supersonic combustion, the process used in an air-breathing supersonic ramjet engine, known as a scramjet.
University of Queensland Vice-Chancellor Professor John Hay congratulated the international HyShot team on its success, which he said put Australia at the forefront of this new technology and enhanced the country's international prestige in space research. It's a magnificent example of international collaboration, involving researchers from Australia, the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Korea and Japan, he said. Professor Hay is chair of the Group of Eight, Australia's leading research-intensive universities which produce the majority of Australian scientific research programs.
Three International collaborative flights of the Hyshot Scramjet engine were scheduled to be launched in South Australia's Woomera Instrumented Range this month.
On March the 27th A University of Queensland project called HyShot III successfully launched QinetiQ's scramjet engine which was attached to a Terrier- Orion rocket. The scramjet engine was developed by Defence and Security Company QinetiQ on behalf of the English Department of Defence. QinetQ is one of Europe's largest research organisations.
Three days later on Thursday the March 30th the 1.3 million Hyshot IV was successfully launched on at the Woomera Instrumented Range. On the 31st March 2006 the payload and second stage rocket were found by spotter aircraft.
The Third and Fourth Hyshot/Scramjet projects were launched from the donated 2 million dollar Japanese launcher gifted by JAXA that was previously used on the successful Supersonic Plane (NEXST I) project.
Because of the seemingly lack of interest by collectors in my production of these covers I have restricted the last three launches of the third fourth and fifth launch projects of the Hyshot project to 25 envelopes for each launch.
The Hyshot V project, the third in this present series will be conducted soon.
My thanks go to the University of Queensland Australia for the news updates and especially to Chris Stacy for the use of the photos in my updated story of the Hyshot/Scramjet projects
