Current US hypersonic weapons projects. (General)

[CJohnston]

What do they mean by a "Highly loaded grain"?

Your guess is as good as mine. No one would talk further. I'll check my otter transcript when I get back to my dorm though, see if I missed any more details

 

[Calphor]

What do they mean by a "Highly loaded grain"?

Typical SRMs use a Center Perforated (CP, hole through the center of the cylinder) grain as the configuration of the propellant you’ll also hear finocyl used to designate a star pattern in the CP. This configuration is typically limited to 80-90% volume loading on large motors, less for smaller diameters. The concept of highly loaded grain is to go beyond that typical design scenario. Basically, trying to stuff more propellant (ie, motor impulse) into the same volume.

 

[Josh_TN]

What do they mean by a "Highly loaded grain"?

Gets me loaded every time…

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[bobbymike]

Air resistance slows everything down at sea level. Mach 2.5 is the fastest figure I’ve seen for a sea skimmer. I doubt Brahmos or Zircon are much faster at low altitude; hypersonic speeds are pretty much by definition high altitude for air breathers. Even ICBM RVs massively slow down in the thick air of the lower atmosphere. I suspect every hypersonic glider slows down to supersonic speeds on its dive to the target.

Although low level and very high speed can occur. Although obviously not a weapon

View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3qeoH_8jQ5E&pp=ygUQcm9ja2V0IHJhaWwgdGVzdA%3D%3D
Wonder what this would look like hitting the side of a ship?

 

[Calphor]

Although low level and very high speed can occur. Although obviously not a weapon

View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3qeoH_8jQ5E&pp=ygUQcm9ja2V0IHJhaWwgdGVzdA%3D%3D
Wonder what this would look like hitting the side of a ship?

To reach that speed, they had to use a tent filled with Helium to reduce drag. You can see the tent covering the track on the right side of the video. The open air top speed is lower, but I think it is still > Mach 5.