LAAD11: Brazil Reveals Details of 14-X Hypersonic Vehicle

Hello reader!

It follows one communicates published in english on the day (13/04), in the site "www.flightglobal.com", announcing that the Brazil revealed details of the 14-X Hypersonic Vehicle during the realization of the LAAD 2011.

Duda Falcão

LAAD11: Brazil Reveals Details of

14-X Hypersonic Vehicle

By Stephen Trimble

Flight International Magazine

13/04/2011

With first flight of the 14-X waverider scramjet scheduled in 2013, Brazilian military officials have revealed details of the country's first venture into hypersonic flight tests.

The 14-X is a 2 x 0.8m (6.5 x 2.6ft) vehicle designed to demonstrate speeds beyond Mach 6.0. If the design is sound, Brazil could scale up the vehicle to deliver mini-satellites into space, says Maj Roberto Follador, 14-X flight test director for Brazil's department of aerospace science and technology.

Air-breathing scramjets, in theory, can carry 15% of their mass as payload. In contrast, rockets must carry their own oxygen for combustion, and payloads comprise only 5% of their total mass, Follador says.

Brazil launched the 14-X programme in 2006, the centennial year of the first flight of the 14-Bis - Brazil's first powered aircraft.

The first captive-carry flight test had been scheduled between 2010 and 2012, but has slipped to 2013 and could be delayed further, Follador says.

For its maiden flight, the 14-X will be joined at the front of a two-stage VSB-30 rocket, he says. The S-31 motor first stage will boost the vehicle to M4.0 before separating. Then, the S-30 motor second stage will ignite, pushing both the motor and the 14-X beyond M6.0 at about 100,000ft altitude for around 4s.

The three scramjet engines powering the 14-X will not be ignited while joined to the S-30 motor on the first flight test, Follador says.

Instead, the vehicle's designers will examine the 14-X's aerodynamic characteristics and thermal loads inside each scramjet engine, he says.

In the next series of captive carry tests, the 14-X scramjet engine will be engaged while still connected to the front end of the S-30 motor second stage, Follador says.

The 14-X will separate from the S-30 motor only on a third series of flight tests, with the scramjets powering the aircraft beyond M6.0, Follador says.

 This is no scale-model. It's a full-scale mock-up of the 14-X,

which the Brazilian air force's research laboratory hopes

to launch for the first time in 2013

Fonte: Site www.flightglobal.com

Comentário: Esse entusiasmo do Comando da Aeronáutica (COMAER) em lançar o 14-X em 2013 não bate com o que eu pude perceber em minha visita recente ao IEAv. Isso não significa que alguém do instituto tenha em off dito algo nesse sentido para mim, muito pelo contrário, mas apesar de sair de lá muito impressionado com o que me foi apresentado e de saber que o projeto não vive problemas financeiros, não é necessário ser um especialista para notar que o “Laboratório de Aerotermodinâmica e Hipersônica Prof. Henry T. Nagamatsu” responsável pelo desenvolvimento deste projeto, vive uma problema sério com a falta de recursos humanos em número adequado para cumprir a missão. Apesar disto, a equipe que está envolvida com o projeto parece-me muito motivada e muito bem conduzida pelo Cel. Eng. Marco Antonio Sala Minucci e pelo pesquisador Paulo Gilberto de Paula Toro. Vamos aguardar os acontecimentos e torcer para que estejamos errado e esse vôo possa realmente ocorrer em 2013.