Australian launch services company, Gilmour Space Technologies, is launching a new suborbital flight test service in Australia aimed at commercial and defence customers that require hypersonic speeds above Mach 5 (or more than five times the speed of sound).
"We've witnessed a surge in the research and development of hypersonic vehicles, materials, and other related technologies in recent years, especially since AUKUS (a trilateral security partnership involving Australia, the UK and US)," said David Doyle, Director of Launch Vehicles and Satellites at Gilmour Space.
"However, as many of these ideas progress from concept to prototyping and testing, we're also seeing a growing bottleneck in high-speed flight test capabilities, beyond what ground-based shock tunnel testing and simulations can offer."
Doyle noted that while wind tunnel tests (which offer hypersonic flow for 200 to 300 milliseconds) are excellent for early-stage testing of materials and geometries with scaled-down models, for example; a significant challenge remains in scaling these technologies to full-size applications.
"Our new Hypersonic Flight Test (HPRFLT or Hyper Flight) service will help to bridge that gap by providing a real-life environment for researchers and companies to test, demonstrate, and advance their innovations to higher Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) in Australia," he added.
The Hyper Flight service, set to launch in 2025 from a few potential sites, leverages Gilmour Space's orbital launch vehicle technology.
"This is a sovereign, Australian solution for a low-cost, rapid turnkey, hypersonic testbed that will be essential for translating early-stage research into high TRL technologies and platforms that can be used by the Australian Defence Force and our allies."