Hypersonix together with the University of Southern Queensland, LSM Advanced Composites and New South Wales-based Romar Engineering have been awarded a $2.95M Cooperative Research Centres Projects (CRC-P) grant from the Federal Government.
The project, titled ‘DART CMP Airframe – a reusable hypersonic platform’, is a UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) that can travel at hypersonic speeds up to Mach 12 (twelve times the speed of sound) (twelve times the speed of sound). It is powered by the SPARTAN hydrogen fuelled scramjet engine.
Scramjets use atmospheric oxygen, resulting in a 60% weight savings over rockets. DART CMP will be reusable thanks to the creation of new high temperature composite materials in this project. Hypersonix is pioneering a new era of ‘Green access to space,’ with zero CO2 emissions thanks to its green hydrogen fuel.
The project will deliver a new sovereign manufacturing capability for high temperature oxide-oxide ceramic matrix composites. Aeroshell and aerodynamic control surfaces, flight avionics, and a hydrogen fuel system are all included in the deliverables. A composite DART AE, according to Hypersonix’s Managing Director David Waterhouse, will be available in 2023.
Additive Manufacturing/3D Printing will be used where possible and will be covered by Romar Engineering with Steve Milanoski, ex-SpaceX, leading the steadily growing additive manufacturing team. As part of the flight readiness process, the DART CMP UAV will be put through hardware in the loop bench testing.
Hypersonix has received grants from the federal government before. The team is eager to get started on project DART CMP in July 2022 now that the ‘Accelerating Commercialisation program’ (ACA grant) was completed on time and within budget by the 31st of March.
