Core Technologies of the X-51A SED-WR Program

The present article is intended to introduce the X-51A Scramjet Engine Demonstrator-Wave Rider (SED-WR) program and its core technologies to the korean propulsion community. The X-51A program is lead by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and is sponsored by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Most of the contents is taken from the paper by Hank et al.[1] with the supplemental materials from additional references. X-51A is a hypersonic experimental vehicle for the flight test of the hydrocarbon fuel-cooled scramjet engine developed by the AFRL HyTech program. The scramjet engine and the hypersonic flight technologies may enter the era of practical use by the completion of the ground tests in 2008 followed by the flight tests scheduled in 2009.