Integrated Hypersonic Aeromechanics Tool (IHAT)

The IHAT System is a tool suite for configuration optimization of high speed airbreathing flight vehicles currently under development. The focus of the System is on high speed tactical weapons (Mach 4-8 regime) with relatively long range. The hypersonic flight regime of the weapons results in unique requirements for the analysis, design, and optimization tool suite. While the requirements for tactical weapons systems are quite different from those for launch vehicles, strategic weapons systems, and high speed aircraft, they share the characteristic that they are highly integrated configurations. For such highly integrated configurations, the traditional disciplinary lines between vehicle components tend to disappear as, for example, the structure becomes more tightly integrated with the propulsion system. Due to the highly integrated nature of the configurations, traditional "stovepipe" design methods have not been successful in defining a viable configuration for this type of mission. It is expected that an integrated approach to the analysis, design, and optimization of the entire vehicle will allow interactions between the disciplines to be understood and exploited. This will allow for the development of viable long range hypersonic vehicles. The IHAT System is an effort to provide such an integrated analysis/optimization toolset. IHAT is being developed by a government/ industry team using multiple, incremental builds. This paper describes the first build (Build 1) of the IHAT System.