The United States is developing a hybrid engine based on a high-density polymer for a hypersonic missile

The US Air Force has awarded a contract to Vaya Space to develop a hybrid engine for hypersonic vehicles. missiles. This is reported by the National Defense Magazine. The publication notes that its basis is a high-density polymer - a type of polyethylene

If the oxidizer is used correctly, this material burns well, and if it is not present, fire will not occur. This substance is completely inert in storage until you bring it to its maximum speed in use. And if something does fail, it fails safely and the flame goes out rather than detonating

– Vaya Space Chief Operating Officer Robert Fabian spoke about the advantages of the technology.

He added that the company has devoted the last few years to improving this technology.

If the plan can be put into practice, then, according to the developers, American hypersonic missiles with a new hybrid engine will be a real surprise for a potential enemy.

Since it is a hybrid rocket in terms of fuel use, it is better controllable and its flight can be adjusted. So, you can move with the high speed and acceleration that you want. You can also make it invisible while you're gaining speed if you want to avoid detection. This ability to control the missile's speed and thermal signature will make the missile much less predictable to the detection system.

– Fabian promises.

The company adds that they were able to create not only a new engine production technology, but also developed their own model of their operation, which allows them to very quickly scale up power plant designs. It is emphasized that this was achieved through the use of computer modeling technology.

It is worth noting that the cost of the contract between the US Air Force and Vaya Space has not been disclosed, as well as the timing of its execution.

Let us add that today the United States is noticeably behind Russia in the creation of hypersonic weapons. The Russian Army is already successfully using it in the area of ​​special military operations, while the States are busy developing technologies.

Comments

[Argon]

Apparently they are no longer able to lure specialists from Russia, as in the 90s.

[tralflot1832]

Argon, it looks like they were given drawings without filing technology.

[umah]

Marvelous! Innovative supersonic combustion technology in an open article! And no secrecy.

If the plan can be implemented in practice

And here is the answer: there is no technology.

[Cat Alexandrovich]

When the staff members really succeed in this matter, then they need to send Petrov and Bashirov to them (to spy this time, and not to smear their hands with Novichok and compromise the cat). In the meantime, let the Yankees work.

[Popandos]

this is a hybrid rocket

Eeeeee
Maybe it’s still a two-stage one, with different types of fuel?

[voyaka uh]

It seems, they claim, it is possible to smoothly regulate the combustion intensity of the same new type of fuel in flight

[dauria]

Hybrid - previously they called engines with different aggregate states of fuel and oxidizer. Gas-liquid, gas-solid, liquid-solid. Here, it seems, we are talking about a straight-through with solid fuel and oxidizer - oxygen from the air. They even stuck them in 155 mm artillery shells. I don't know how successfully.

[bayard]

Quote: dauria

Here, it seems, we are talking about a direct flow with solid fuel and oxidizer air oxygen.

According to the writing it turns out exactly like this. High-density polyethylene is poured into the engine housing and hardens in the required configuration, and the air flow is provided by the air intake when achieving high supersonic speeds using a booster. Let's see what they can do, but with this design it is really possible to regulate the draft - with the help of an air intake. And the big question is how effective this will be. Aluminum or beryllium powder can be mixed into such high-density polyethylene to increase the calorie content. With beryllium powder, the calorie content will be the highest, but beryllium metal is very expensive... although it has been used for a long time to increase the specific thrust of the last stages of the TT ICBMs (starting with the Minuteman ICBM).

[Popandos]

It doesn't seem like the article says

This substance is completely inert in storage until you bring it to its maximum speed in use.

This means there must be at least an accelerating stage.

[Mister22408]

Just for laughs? They don't know the word "specific impulse and temperature mode" - a normal, burry sawing... I can agree if there is a lifting wing - but this is not ballistics...

[astepanov]

Quote: Popandos

Maybe it’s still a two-stage one, with different types of fuel?

Most likely, a solid propellant based on high-molecular polyethylene and an oxidizer in a separate tank. Polyethylene has about the same heat of combustion as kerosene. The fuel block should contain channels to increase the combustion surface, as in a conventional turbojet engine. The oxidizer is unlikely to be oxygen, since it requires pre-launch refueling, which reduces combat readiness. Most likely, nitrogen tetroxide. The specific impulse of the tetroxide-polyethylene pair is slightly higher than that of the tetroxide-heptyl pair used on Protons, and higher than that of any turbojet engine. Disadvantages include difficulties in processing ultra-high-molecular polyethylene, as well as the need for a pump unit (conventional turbojet engines do not have them). Advantages include excellent strength of the fuel block (this material is tipped to replace Kevlar in bulletproof vests). Perhaps the fuel also contains additives that increase the speed and temperature of combustion: aluminum, beryllium, boron, etc.

[astepanov]

And this option is also possible, as described dauria, direct flow. Then you need a starting accelerator.

[Mister22408]

And what other more Energy-intensive ones do you know? And the CIRCUS will be that the Jews extinguish the local rabbits in the impossibility of producing (for the hands grow in a certain place) the well-known cooling of the nozzle... What Korolev did. Moreover, we do not have UDMH and AT is the main fuel...

[Thrifty]

The question is, what should be “packed” into this polymer so that it not only burns at high speeds, but also provides the required efficiency for a hypersonic rocket flight?

[AllBiBek]

What? Thousands and tens of thousands of kilojoules of democracy.
The molecules of freedom are somehow packaged into liquefied gas, right? That is why it is so dear to the final forced buyer.

[Sensor]

what should be “packed” into this polymer

Both fuel and oxidizer are important, since engine thrust is created by the outflow of gaseous high-temperature combustion products, the higher the temperature, the higher the pressure and, consequently, the speed of the jet.
For comparison 2H2+O2 = 2H20 3100 K and H2+O2 = 2HF 4000 K
You also need to know a lot of products.

[astepanov]

Quote: Sensor

For comparison, 2H2+O2 = 2H20 3100 K and H2+O2 = 2HF 4000 K

error in the second reaction equation.

[Sensor]

Thank you. Can you tell me if it is possible, and if so, how to use indexes and use other fonts, for example Greek, without using the character table.

[Mister22408]

Convert to UDMH and AT, or even more powerful... :-)

[Sensor]

I didn't study combustion thermodynamics, I use the remnants of what was left from the school chemistry course. With such knowledge, the accuracy of estimates will be +/- 1000%? no better.

[Mister22408]

The connection between thermodynamics and your words is zero...

[Sensor]

The shield itself is not zero, I told you it is not interesting to me, because I know how much material needs to be mastered. If you want to get a non-zero result, start with books from the open access available on the Internet, once you master it, you can move on to specialized magazines. Only 5 pictures are allowed in the message

[KVU-NSVD]

Interesting, but nothing is clear. Machine translation without a person familiar with the topic is a meaningless set of text with many interpretation options. Why write a note if the author himself doesn’t catch up with anything? It will be interesting to read the comments right now, where they will discuss this nonsense with a smart look

[VitaminBF3mg]

Not machine, but Mouse))

[Mister22408]

General Chemistry Glinka - a textbook for difficult students (usually fools) - Unsymmetrical dimethyl hydrazine plus nitrogen tetroxide., Is it possible not to roll up the production?

[VitaminBF3mg]

So they have long set their sights on SuperHyperDuper, but it doesn’t work out with the Death Star, Hollywood in a word

[Mouse]

And if something really fails, it fails

.when leaving, come out... leave your wishes with you...

[Russ]

coming out - come out...

It sucks....

[Dmitry Rigov]

It’s not clear why Daggers can’t hit bridges, are they such useless missiles?

[Russ]

I'm surprised at you.... restore who?

[Crimean partisan 1974]

I'm surprised at you.... restore who?

....with the dismemberment of the Poles and other Magyars...we have no chance in the western Banderland even in the foreseeable future

[AllBiBek]

And you throw the dumbbell as hard as you can at the load-bearing wall of a high-rise building, then it will become clearer.
Large bridges across large rivers in the USSR were built with the expectation that a tactical nuclear charge would not take them, but it would be good if a strategic one could handle it.

[Crimean partisan 1974]

they built across large rivers in the USSR with the expectation that

...yeah...but they smashed the Kakhovka Dam and the Antonovsky Bridge...without any effort and the first time...where did you get such naivety...and you brought up the dumbbells...made me laugh

[VitaminBF3mg]

It’s an expensive pleasure, and why, there are bridges there... and don’t forget, the bridge is designed for 50+ tons

[voyaka uh]

To hit the bridge you need a direct hit.
KVO 1-3 m.
Highmars has such accuracy.
At Dagger and Iskander
KVO 5 -50 m
This is the disadvantage of hypersonic missiles: higher speed (more difficult to intercept) - less accuracy.
Zircon has the same problem, which was fired twice at important targets in Ukraine.

[Crimean partisan 1974]

To hit the bridge you need a direct hit.
KVO 1-3 m.

It’s not worth bearing a blizzard...accurate hits on sheds with drug addicts all at once...and on a bridge....oops...you need to have brains to destroy the enemy’s infrastructure...unfortunately our General Staff lacks their presence

[Thrifty]

Warrior, did you measure the CEP yourself, or, most importantly, while extolling the US stuff, spit on the Russian one???

[Mister22408]

You laugh a lot, KVO - it’s different...smaller in radius :-)

[Crimean partisan 1974]

It’s not clear why Daggers can’t hammer on bridges,

...cholesterol in the brains of the morons from the General Staff of the Russian Federation is off the charts

[Prokop_Pork]

A lot of words from Fabian is a sure sign of a charlatan.

[Crimean partisan 1974]

A lot of words from Fabian is a sure sign of a charlatan.

...a long time ago there was a program called "Mythbusters" on Discovery..well, there were two morons who used fuel as a rocket fuel made from organic matter like meat, lard, and so on..well, smoked sausage had the greatest result...but about hypersound on polyethylene. That's real nonsense...about the same as two striped cretins getting a Nobel Prize...attention...for COLD THERMONUCLEAR FUSION...nonsense and nothing more

[Sensor]

striped cretins received a Nobel Prize...attention...for COLD THERMONUCLEAR fusion

The year and names of the nerds in the studio.

[Crimean partisan 1974]

The year and names of the nerds in the studio.

...search engine and clap in your teeth...and there will be happiness

[Sensor]

Here is a rather long list (I am linking to it) of Nobel laureates in physics. Not a single prize was awarded for thermonuclear fusion, either cold or hot.
Do not read the literature of reptilians, much less broadcast their ideas publicly.
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A1%D0%BF%D0%B8%D1%81%D0%BE%D0%BA_%D0%BB%D0%B0%D1%83%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%B0%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%B2_%D0%9D%D0%BE%D0%B1%D0%B5%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%B2%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B9_%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%BC%D0%B8%D0%B8_%D0%BF%D0%BE_%D1%84%D0%B8%D0%B7%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%B5

[cltechnologist71]

High-density polyethylene is not a new material. Its use is surprising; in terms of calorific value, it is far from the best. The hybrid type is a move away from solid fuel, it really allows for better control of combustion, but in hypersonic a direct-flow with PE this is a problem, the melting point of PE is 135 degrees.

[andrey4578]

If I understand correctly, then in order to charge a hypersonic missile with fuel that burns periodically, it is something like dynamite instead of gunpowder, and you will need the same amount of dynamite as gunpowder, just the missile must be an order of magnitude stronger (several times heavier). The advantage of this missile, as I understand it, is that it will light up less often on amateur thermal imagers in its rear. Of course, there are also advantages to liquid fuel ones - the speed of approach to the target - they can choose the flatness of the trajectory at a distance. I think we can do it easier.

[andrey4578]

It is understood that this is like an explosive in reactive armor, it works only after a high threshold, the threshold can be controlled (if there is combustion and not an explosion). If it was published, then it’s not a secret for a long time - “American hypersonic missiles with a new hybrid engine will be a real surprise for a potential enemy” - but this won’t happen.

[andrey4578]

It’s not clear, to be honest, they came up with the idea that we changed our minds about, in favor of solid fuel, why would they need to control the engine - for quasi-ballistic in acceleration (so that it would slow down before it could accelerate)? I always thought that we don’t have the bottom.