The United States conducted a secret test of Lockheed Martin's Hypersonic Aspirated Weapons Concept (HAWC) missile in March. The hypersonic missile was successfully launched from a B-52H bomber on the west coast of the United States.
In this latest test, Lockheed Martin's missile was accelerated by a booster to a high speed and then successfully engaged with a Supersonic Combustion Ramjet (Scramjet), propelling it to a speed of more than Mach 5 and maintaining it for a long time.
Superflood ramjet engine is a kind of intake air flow speed more than the speed of sound of the suction jet engine, the current human has made the fastest flight speed of the intake engine aircraft, NASA's X-43A hypersonic unmanned experimental aircraft, equipped with supersonic combustion ramjet engine.
In this latest test, Lockheed Martin's HAWC reached altitudes greater than 65,000 feet and flew more than 300 nautical miles.
In the development of hypersonic aerospace, this type of inhaled design represents a more important technological leap than the unpowered booster glider. The U.S. Air Force and DARPA see the HAWC design as a springboard to more sophisticated airborne, air-aspirated hypersonic weapons.
While the missile was designed for land attacks, Loma also proposed to the Navy a version carried by the F-35C stealth fighter to strike at sea targets.
The jet engine used by Loma was developed by Aerojet Rocketdyne and may have come from the Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne SJY6, a hypersonic test vehicle developed by Boeing for DARPA that was flight tested in the 2010s.
DARPA is already working to develop a turbine-based combined cycle propulsion unit (TBCC). This engine is a mixture of traditional jet turbines and ramjet or scramjet engines, allowing acceleration from stationary to hypersonic speed and then deceleration.
This advanced full-range engine (AFRE) will increase the flexibility of any powered hypersonic system, enabling the creation of disposable hypersonic power units, as well as reusable hypersonic power platforms for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions, as well as long-range time-sensitive strikes.