Sub-Orbital Hypersonic Flight Test Programs using Sounding Rockets and Small Launch Vehicles

As a part of the R&D efforts for the hypersonic vehicles, various flight test programs has been carried out using small launch vehicles or sounding rockets. Australian HyShot program is a representative case of the flight test program for scramjet engines carried by international collaborations. A number of hypersonic flight test programs has followed in a similar way. In USA, Falcon HTV-2 was carried by DARPA, X-51A by AFRL and HyFly by ONR. HyCAUSE and HIFiRE were carried in collaboration with Australia. In France, LEA program is on the way similarly to X-51A. Russia, China and India seems like carrying out flight test programs for the development of hypersonic defense system. The goals, technical elements, the status and the relation between the programs were summarized in this paper as a reference for the similar program of the country in the future.