Ajax (Ayaks) hypersonic vehicles with MHD propulsion

Re: Ajax hypersonic vehicles with MHD propulsion

Mr London 24/7 said:
If you're saying you have corrections on Ajax to add to the topic I don't see anyone particularily pushed for time...
I've been privileged to be a direct witness of this episode. Therefore, it took me about 30mn to read through the entire thesis, and make sure it was not representative of what I actually saw, understood and accessed. Parts of my studies were related to History of Science & Technology so the conceptual blah blah, I knew it already, meaning I did not skip it, I understood very fast the authors' point. And no, I won't expand on what is missing, and/or misrepresentative of what I witnessed.
A.
 
Russian Ayaks Programme

The Russian Ayaks Programme was for the development of a wave rider reconnaissance aircraft in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Started under Soviet control and continued under Russian control.

Wikipedia has an interesting article on it - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayaks.

Does anybody have more information on it?
 
Re: Russian Ayaks Programme

Ah, I searched under "ayaks" not the translation, "ajax"! Thanks.
 
A couple of more articles on that development:

 
I'd be interested in receiving the following by DM:

Julian M. Tishkoff, "1996-2011: When the US Air Force Invaded Russia", AIAA 2021-0516, History of Aeronautics I - Published Online:4 Jan 2021


abstract: "In the period 1996-2011 the United States Air Force engaged in an unclassified basic research collaboration with academic and research institutions in the former Soviet Union, including Russia and Ukraine, to study phenomena associated with plasma aerodynamics, the application of weakly ionized plasmas to improve the propulsion and aerodynamic performance of aerospace vehicles. This concept had been introduced into the open literature in a 1994 Russian publication describing a novel hypersonic vehicle, Ayaks. The Air Force subsequently provided funding for this research through two international organizations whose mission is the nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction, The International Science and Technology Center and The Civilian Research and Development Foundation. Research was structured in four focused topics: aerodynamics, ignition and combustion enhancement, magneto gas dynamics, and plasma generation. Teams of investigators in these topics were organized in both Russia and the United States, with international collaboration and open reviews conducted semi-annually. In the United States these reviews were held primarily at AIAA meetings. This activity was unique and is not likely to be repeated in the foreseeable future."

A.
 
This Ajax model apparently on display at Farnborough in 1998 looks nothing like any of the others designs. Some of the (poorly auto-translated) text that went with the photo:

"Domestic development - VKS "Ajax" seems more exotic. Nevertheless, it is much more promising than Skylon. The project is being worked on by the “Institute for Research of Hypersonic Systems (MSRI)”, a branch of the St. Petersburg holding company “Leninets” under the leadership of A. Freistadt. The concept was first discussed in the late 1980s, and more often with great skepticism: an unknown Leningrad engineer proposed a whole class of fundamentally new hypersonic and aerospace aircraft based on, as it is now fashionable to say, “revolutionary” design principles."

"Ajax is an open aerothermodynamic system that converts the energy of a hypersonic free flow into work. The authors of the concept propose to reconsider many aspects of the development of [video conferencing](?) of the future. In general terms, the energy exchange goes like this: hydrocarbon fuel (kerosene), passing through channels in the hottest spots of the aircraft (the nose of the fuselage, the leading edges of the wing and the engine combustion chamber), is heated and, through catalysts, decomposes into hydrogen and hydrocarbons with a lower molecular weight. Hydrogen is used in a magnetohydrodynamic converter (MHD generator) to generate electricity used to control the air flow in the inlet circuit of a hypersonic ramjet with supersonic combustion, in which hydrocarbons are burned. The thrust-to-weight ratio of such an engine can be many times higher than this parameter of conventional jet engines, and the resulting electrical energy also goes into the plasma control system for lift and drag of the VKS."
 

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So - any chance it was ever workable OR - was it just hype and false hopes in the end ?
 

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