Over the past month, several controversial statements have been made on the progress of the national hypersonic program.At first, Izvestia reported that, according to specialists from TsAGI, the “practical” work on the domestic hypersound was frozen until 2014. "So far it is known that work has been stopped until 2014 of the year. In general, our X-90 purges in the pipes stopped in the 2010 year, and for the next two years only theoretical calculations were carried out," the newspaper's interlocutor added. In the ICD, the publication was told that GZLA "has been irrelevant for 10 years" and "no prototypes have been produced there." He does not know about any experimental flights.
Some time later, this message was refuted by Dmitry Rogozin, who said that no one was going to give up on the GZLA project.
What really happens with the domestic hypersound? Obviously, newspaper sources talked about different hypersonic devices, differing from each other by several "generations." As for Rogozin, he in his peculiar specific manner tried to report that the hypersonic program as such is still going on.
So what is hypersonic speed? We understand them very broadly, even attributing to ordinary supersonic Sukhoi business jets. However, the rigorous definition of hypersound is a speed in excess of five speeds of sound (5M). For a short time (on the order of tens of seconds), many rockets with “classical” rocket engines reach it, but a long flight at such speeds is possible only with the use of hypersonic ramjet engines (scramjet, also known as scramjet). Their main advantage is in the absence of the need to “carry” on themselves an oxidizing agent, which constitutes the main mass of rocket fuel. Atmospheric oxygen is used instead. The main fuel for "scramjet" can be either hydrogen or ordinary hydrocarbon fuel (kerosene), to achieve which burning at hypersonic speeds is multiple times more difficult.
Development of scramjet in the USSR began in the 1950-x. The first projects of hypersonic aircraft, which are not “clean” rocket planes, appeared in the USSR at the beginning of the 1960's. So, the designers took up the development of a reusable space system "Spiral", consisting of a hypersonic accelerating aircraft (GSR) and a military orbital aircraft (OS) with a rocket accelerator. The GSR, which was proposed to be used as a scout, had to accelerate to 6 sound speeds (6М) when using hydrogen as a fuel, and in the kerosene version to 4-4,5. However, the device was planned to equip not scramjet, and turbojet engines - but a very sophisticated design.
With regard to the development of hypersonic direct flow, in fact, the Soviet program began in the 1970-s. Unlike the Americans, it was decided not to use special-built vehicles, but serial anti-aircraft missiles as flying laboratories.
In 1979, the USSR approved a research plan for the use of cryogenic fuel, including hydrogen, for aviation engines. The plan also provided for the development of aircraft with supersonic and hypersonic speeds. However, the program was not a priority and did not advance quickly.
The real impetus to work was given by the likely adversary. In 1986 in the USA, the largest after the Apollo lunar program, research and development projects of the NASP (National Aerospace Plane) project began. Their end result was to be a space plan X-30, capable of going into orbit in a single-stage version. The most important feature of the project was a dual-mode “scramjet” operating in a wide range of speeds - from high subsonic to M = 25.
The apparatus could be viewed diverse military use, and in the USSR immediately responded. In 1986, it was decided to create the Soviet equivalent of the NASP, a single-stage reusable aerospace plane (MVKS). From the submitted projects, approval was given to the Tu-2000 with a combined power plant: turbojet engines (TRD) + scramjet + liquid rocket engines (LRE). A giant bomber appeared on the drawings with a starting weight of 360 tons, speed 6М, flight range 10 thousand km at altitude 30 km. The space variant, capable of going into orbit up to 200 km with a payload of 8-10 tons, weighed 260 tons, had a speed from M = 15 to M = 25 (first space).
By the beginning of the 1990-ies Tupolev Design Bureau built the elements of the wing and fuselage, cryogenic tanks and fuel lines. Intensively developed scramjet itself. In CIAM, under the Kholod program, a hypersonic flight laboratory (GLL) was developed based on the C-200 anti-aircraft missile. 27 November 1991, the first flight of the laboratory took place - however, so far without the inclusion of a "scramjet".
With the collapse of the USSR, work on the Tu-2000 went into a sluggish mode - the next version of the bomber continued to “develop” on paper as part of the Eagle 1993-96 program.
The project participants immediately tried to enter the international market. Buyers were found almost instantly. The first were the French. In 1992, with their participation, a second experiment took place, in which the scramjet turned on and the GLL reached M = 5.35. During the third flight of the Russian-French program, in which it was supposed to reach speeds over 6 M, the rocket failed.
Meanwhile, the NASP project did not flourish. In 1993, the program was revised, and soon it was finally closed - good, the enemy left the race. However, no one was going to give up the development of hypersonic technologies as such - all the more so because there was an opportunity to save money. In 1994, NASA has signed a contract with CIAM to conduct flight experiments with the GLL Cold. The contract worth - attention - 1,8 million dollars involved the development and manufacture of four engines and the testing of two GLLs, together with specialists from CIAM. One of the engines remained in reserve, and another was transferred directly to the Americans. The test launch of the "full-fledged" GLL was made on 12 in February of 1998 from the Sary-Shagan test site in Kazakhstan. The duration of the scramjet operation was 77 sec., The achieved speed - 6,5 M. At the same time, the “hypersonic” part of the apparatus, naturally, was not separated, and the overwhelming part of the thrust was provided by the C-200 engine. A total of seven flights were conducted on 1999, three of them with a scramjet operating.
The heir to "Cold" became "Cold-2". The “needle” is a small hypersonic device that was supposed to reach speed in 14M, accelerating with the help of a hydrogen scramjet within 50 seconds. Another direction of work is connected with GLL-31 - less fast (M = 8,5) hydrogen GLL, launched from an aircraft carrier (Mig-31).
In 2004, against the backdrop of the great rocket at the 2004 Security exercise, Putin made a statement that still stirs the minds of "the public." "Experiments and some tests were carried out ... Soon the Russian Armed Forces will receive combat complexes capable of operating at intercontinental distances, at hypersonic speed, with great accuracy, with a wide maneuver in height and direction of impact. These complexes will render any future missile defense models unavailable - existing or prospective. "
Domestic media immediately generated a number of non-trivial interpretations of this statement: "Russia also developed the world's first hypersonic maneuvering rocket, which was launched from the Tu-160 strategic bomber in February 2004, when the 2004 Security Command Headquarters. The launch was watched by then-Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Americans for some reason called this rocket “AS-19 Koala” (Koala is a bamboo bear). According to statements by our military, the “bear” could overcome any anti-missile harrow any opponent without difficulty at speeds 3-4 M. missile could carry 2 warhead and hit targets at once 2 100 from a distance in kilometers. "
The second version of the legend is the story of hypersonic warheads, which allegedly already stand on the domestic Topol-M.
At the same time, the most striking thing in the description of the teachings was that it was clearly stated thatweapon It was launched by a PC-18 ballistic missile, and it had nothing to do with Topol, or, moreover, with the Tu-160.
We will understand. HZLA ("Koala"), the maximum "promised" speed of which was 4,5 M, is not hypersonic by definition (hypersonic speeds - over 5M). The stable operation of the scramjet is possible only at speeds from 5 M. In other words, this is not a rocket with a hypersonic ramjet engine, but with an order of magnitude simpler supersonic (SPVRD) that used hydrogen produced by decomposition of kerosene as a fuel. Financing of the project was discontinued in 1992 due to technical difficulties, however, the Raduga Design Bureau apparently had been sluggish for some time on its own initiative.
The standard "Topol" combat unit is hypersonic in exactly the same sense that the warheads of any other ballistic missiles are hypersonic. The planning combat unit was developed for the Albatross missile system, but the choice was made in favor of a more budget option. The tests of the Topol equipment with maneuvering warheads started on November 1 2005 of the year, but in this case it is also not about the scramjet, but about the old idea of Mr. Solomon to equip warheads with individual solid-fuel rocket engines.
In fact, in 2004, "throwing" (without switching on the engine) tests of the same "Needle" took place, while unsuccessful - according to Solomonov, the device burned down in the atmosphere (the original plans, according to the illustrations quietly hanging on MAX) spirals and parachuting).
The next stage of the domestic hypersonic program is associated with a GLL AP-02 equipped with a kerosene scramjet (speed up to M 6). The layout of the GLL was first shown in the 2007 year, bench testing began in the 2010. It is also known about the "not very successful test" in 2011.
As for the Russian-Indian project of the Brahmos-2 hypersonic anti-ship missile, it is known that the initiative to launch it belonged to Delhi, and at first it was skeptically received by the Russian side. India is building on its experience with the HSTDV hypersonic demonstrator, designed jointly with the Israeli aircraft manufacturer IAI (purchasing its drones the Russian Ministry of Defense was "carried away") with the limited participation of the Russian TsAGI and CIAM. Probably, the domestic hypersonic anti-ship missile "Zirkon-S" will be a version of "Brahmos-2".
In other words, the state of the hypersonic program of Russia looks rather doubtful. The mythologized HMZA was in fact buried for a long time, and the work on hypersonic devices in general, about which a source at TsAGI apparently spoke, was frozen until the 2014 year. The statements of another "informed source" Izvestia, not deprived of originality, testify to strange moods in the domestic MIC: "Among the hypersonic devices, only the American experiments X-15, X-43, X-51 proved successful. One of them was tested as manned. But all they are beyond the atmospheric, and maneuvering at hypersonic speeds in the air at the present level of technological development is impossible in the air. " The source told the newspaper that the engine, which not only stably supports the work in supersonic mode, but also is able to switch to hypersound, remains an unsolvable problem. According to him, the need for hypersonic controlled flights in the atmosphere has not been substantiated.
Meanwhile, even the X-15 rocket, which actually reached the edge of space, also developed hypersonic speeds in the atmosphere. X-43 and X-51 are strictly atmospheric (the height of the second flight is slightly more than 20 km) for the simple reason that the scramjet does not work in a vacuum. Maneuvering at hypersonic speeds was practiced on very old rockets with solid-propellant rocket engines, and in 2007, the Swedish SaabBofors very clearly showed the possibility of complex maneuvering at M = 5,5 even at low altitudes. Finally, X-51 demonstrated stable scramjet operation for 2,5 minutes on hydrocarbon fuels, which is multiple times more complicated than on hydrogen.
In other words, propaganda shouts in the spirit of "what the Americans are doing now - our past" mask a very unpleasant situation for us.