The University of Queensland has welcomed the announcement of an $8.5 million partnership in scramjet development between UQ, the Queensland Government and Boeing.
The partnership will allow UQ to build advanced scramjet prototypes and undertake prolonged flight tests at speeds of more than Mach 8, or 8000km/hour.
The Queensland Government will contribute A$2 million towards a project on scramjet development from research to prototyping as one of 13 recipients of its National and International Research Alliances grants.
The project will also include a matching contribution by The Boeing Company, which has committed A$2.03 million over three years.
The Alliance also includes UQ contributions of $970,000 and an Australian Research Council Discovery grant of almost $1.4 million.
Queensland Deputy Premier, Treasurer and Minister for State Development, Trade and Innovation Anna Bligh made the announcement at a meeting with Boeing senior executives in Chicago.
Ms Bligh said the grant was part of the Innovation Projects Fund – one of the new funds of the recently announced $200 million Smart State Innovation Funding Program which aims to build world-class research facilities, attract top-quality scientists to Queensland and stimulate cutting-edge research projects.
University of Queensland Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor David Siddle said Queensland was poised to be the home of an exciting new aerospace industry based on UQ’s successful HyShot™ program.
He said the National and International Research Alliances Program partnership would provide a boost to scramjet technology, which would change the approach to transportation.
Professor Siddle said it was well known that Australia enjoyed a global competitive advantage in scramjet research, thanks primarily to the talent and dedication of UQ researchers.
“This Smart State Alliance will help position Queensland for continued international leadership in applied scramjet research and in the future direction of emerging scramjet industries,” he said.
Dr Robert Krieger, president of Boeing’s Phantom Works advanced R&D unit, said that The Boeing Company was committed to research in hypersonic vehicles and looked forward to working with UQ in this field.
“With the level of experience and success that both Boeing and The University of Queensland have in demonstrating hypersonic technology, our collaborative efforts could very well open new frontiers in aerospace globally,” Dr Krieger said.
On the X-43A Hyper-X program, Phantom Works and NASA successfully conducted the first-ever free flights of an operating scramjet engine integrated with a hypersonic airframe, achieving speeds of Mach 7 and Mach 10.
Phantom Works is teamed with the Advanced Systems group of Boeing’s Integrated Defense Systems business on a number of other hypersonics projects, including this collaboration project with UQ.
HyShot™ international program leader Professor Allan Paull said the project would provide employment opportunities for science and engineering graduates.
“The manufacturing sector will also benefit from access to learning cutting edge technologies and exploring networking and sales opportunities with international partners,” he said.
UQ conducted the HyShot™ III and HyShot™ IV experimental scramjet test programs at Woomera, South Australia on March 25 and March 30 using engines developed by British firm QinetiQ, and as a commission for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Scientists are now analysing data from these experiments.
In 1993 UQ was the first group to achieve scramjet “flight” in a ground test facility and in 2002 UQ researchers achieved supersonic scramjet combustion in actual flight for the first time.
Media: Further information Jan King 0413 601 248 j.king@uq.edu.au or Fiona Kennedy 0413 380 012 f.kennedy@uq.edu.au(for UQ); Steve Keating 0408 720 081 (for Minister Bligh) or Kent Quigley 0423 781 943 (for Boeing Australia).
High resolution stills images and video of the HyShot™ III and IV launches can be downloaded from
https://www.uq.edu.au/news/press/press-gallery.php
Further stories about HyShot™ are available at www.uq.edu.au/news/hyshot
