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A concise overview of the overall layout of an experimental powered high-speed flight vehicle including its subsystems is given. A mission scenario, the different flight segments and events to which the payload is exposed are described and justified. This allowed the definition of the aero-thermo-mechanical loads required to conceptually design all elements on board of the vehicle. The final vehicle configuration could achieve the different mission objectives. In particular an aero-propulsive balance, i.e. thrust ≥ drag and lift ≥ weight, could be established at a cruise Mach number of M = 7.4 on the basis of a hydrogen powered scramjet engine while guaranteeing a good aerodynamic efficiency L/D ≥ 4 in a stable, trimmed and controlled way. The experimental combustion campaign could last for at least for 3s up to 9s pending on the finally obtained flight level. This test time is very valuable as it is about 3 orders of magnitude higher of what can be tested in European ground facilities. The vehicle made maximum use of databases, expertise, technologies and materials elaborated in previously EC co-funded projects ATLLAS I & II and LAPCAT I & II.Based on this conceptual design, the consortium has arrived at a key point where they feel comfortable to go to the next step in establishing a detailed design of the vehicle and the preparation of the launch vehicle and flight campaign.

Achieving airbreathing hypersonic flight is an ongoing challenge with the potential to cut air travel time and provide cheaper access to space. Waveriders are potential candidates for achieving hypersonic cruise or acceleration flight within the atmosphere. Current research tends to focus on key issues like thermal loading, aero-elasticity and aerothermodynamics at hypersonic speeds. Design problems in each of these areas must be solved if a hypersonic waverider design is to be viable.