DARPA Taps Lockheed To Conduct Flight Test With HTV-2 Aeroshell

摘要

The Pentagon's advanced research arm intends to award a sole-source contract to Lockheed Martin to provide an initial baseline flight test for a new program designed to develop, mature and test technologies that travel faster than 20 times the speed of sound. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency wants Lockheed to use an existing aeroshell from its Hypersonic Technology Vehicle (HTV-2) test program "as the basis from which to assemble, integrate, test and fly a long-range, high lift-to-drag hypersonic vehicle" by the end of fiscal year 2014, according to a Federal Business Opportunities notice released last week. This test will help provide a baseline for the new Integrated Hypersonics program, which is designed to look at the technical challenges and increase understanding of long-range hypersonic flight. In addition to modeling and simulation and ground-based testing, the program aims to culminate in a 2016 test flight of a full-scale, hypersonic X-plane, which ideally would have rocket-based propulsion capability and be recoverable, according to a DARPA statement.