French-Russian Cooperation in High-Speed Air Breathing Propulsion

Abstract

Since 1993, MBDA-F and ONERA have been working with many Russian laboratories and institutes in the topic dealing with future high speed airbreathing propulsion system. Particularly, the fruitful cooperation between Moscow Aviation Institute and MBDA France goes on to prepare together a Wide Range Ramjet able to accelerate a reusable space launcher from at least Mach 3 and up to Mach 12. This work has been realized with several cooperative contracts, funded by French Government and by MBDA-France. MBDA-France and the Moscow Aviation Institute are developing an experimental wide range dual-fuel, dual-mode ramjet. The considered engine has a fully variable internal geometry which gives it a priori a high performance level over the whole Mach number range. Technology development work led to the design and partial demonstration of materials and structures solutions to comply with the variable geometry requirements. Combustion tests and other basic research have taken place for more than 7 years at Moscow Aviation Institute. These technologies should be definitively demonstrated thanks to the test of a large scale Prototype in MBDAFrance Bourges-Subdray Center (connected pipe test up to Mach 7 -entrance of combustor 212x257 mm ² ). Specific computer codes are achieved, allowing to control the Prototype and in particular to optimize its contour in real-time during the test. Numerous subscale tests have been realized (with fixed or simply moving internal geometry) in order to better understand the combustion in the regimes that would occur in a dual-fuel dual-mode ramjet. This cooperation gives also the opportunity to work together on the development of new measurement systems and of a methodology associated with hot fuel-cooled structures for WRR. This paper gives a synthesis and an overview of this common work, with consideration to all aspects.

Real-time method for the identification and quantification of hydrocarbon pyrolysis products: Part I. Development and validation of the infra red technique

“…It is generally composed of a carbon/carbon (C/C) composite or Ceramic Matrix Composite (CMC), which allow withstanding high heat loads (around 2000 K) [5]. Nevertheless, it is necessary to use a cooling system for the SCRamjet [6].…”