Hypersonic space and missile technologies were still a distant dream, despite serious efforts being made across the world, said M.S.R. Prasad, Director of Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL).
“Supersonic aero dynamics is an interesting subject. Commendable work is being done in different parts of the country. It appears we are nearly there, but there are a lot of issues to be addressed. In the next 10 years, we will see vehicles flying at supersonic speed,” said Mr. Prasad, while addressing a large number of students, defence experts and others at a workshop on ‘Challenges in Air-breathing Hypersonic Technologies’ held at the Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad (IITH) in association with the Aeronautical Society of India (AeSI) on its campus on Saturday. “Speed is what humans always need. Hypersonic is on the mind of everyone and would certainly take off. We have seen some work being done in the area and in one of the experiments by Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), scramjet engine was tested for 20 seconds in captive mode to understand certain aspects,” he said.
He said research work could be taken up by the students as there were several challenges that were involved in achieving the target in hypersonic technology. He said temperature was one of the critical aspects that needed to be addressed while designing an hypersonic vehicle as high temperature of up to 1800 C would be generated when these vehicles travel.
He said developing temperature-resistant material was a challenge too in addition to thermal coating and said that he hoped the workshop would be able to identify the issues to be addressed in the area.
Samir V. Kamat, DS and DG (NSM), DRDO, said several materials have been tried over the years starting from early 80s when the U.S. launched a major national aero space programme that was meant to carry passengers in a hypersonic flight. “Unfortunately, till now, no deliverable or usable hypersonic vehicle has been made. But I am sure it will happen in the next 10 years at least for military purposes,” he said.
N. Shyam Mohan, Project Director, RLV-TD, VSSC, Thiruvananthapuram, R.K. Sharma, Project Director, HSTDV, DRDL, and others also spoke.
