Recent government and commercial efforts to develop orbital and suborbital passenger and transport aircraft have resulted in a burgeoning of new research. The articles in this book, translated from Russian, were contributed by the world's leading authorities on supersonic and hypersonic flows and heat transfer. This superb book addresses the physics and engineering aspects of ultra high-speed aerodynamic problems. Thorough coverage is given to an array of specific problem-solving equations. Super- and Hypersonic Aerodynamics and Heat Transfer will be essential reading for all aeronautical engineers, mechanical engineers, mathematicians, and physicists involved in this exciting field of research.

Recent government and commercial efforts to develop orbital and suborbital passenger and transport aircraft have resulted in a burgeoning of new research. The articles in this book, translated from Russian, were contributed by the world's leading authorities on supersonic and hypersonic flows and heat transfer. This superb book addresses the physics and engineering aspects of ultra high-speed aerodynamic problems. Thorough coverage is given to an array of specific problem-solving equations. Super- and Hypersonic Aerodynamics and Heat Transfer will be essential reading for all aeronautical engineers, mechanical engineers, mathematicians, and physicists involved in this exciting field of research.

This book is a self-contained text for those students and readers interested in learning hypersonic flow and high-temperature gas dynamics. It assumes no prior familiarity with either subject on the part of the reader. If you have never studied hypersonic and/or high-temperature gas dynamics before, and if you have never worked extensively in the area, then this book is for you. On the other hand, if you have worked and/or are working in these areas, and you want a cohesive presentation of the fundamentals, a development of important theory and techniques, a discussion of the salient results with emphasis on the physical aspects, and a presentation of modern thinking in these areas, then this book is also for you. In other words, this book is designed for two roles: 1) as an effective classroom text that can be used with ease by the instructor, and understood with ease by the student; and 2) as a viable, professional working tool for engineers, scientists, and managers who have any contact in their jobs with hypersonic and/or high-temperature flow.

This volume from The NASA History Series presents an overview of the science of hypersonics, the study of flight at speeds at which the physics of flows is dominated by aerodynamic heating. The survey begins during the years immediately following World War II, with the first steps in hypersonic research: the development of missile nose cones and the X-15; the earliest concepts of hypersonic propulsion; and the origin of the scramjet engine. Next, it addresses the re-entry problem, which came to the forefront during the mid-1950s, showing how work in this area supported the manned space program and contributed to the development of the orbital shuttle. Subsequent chapters explore the fading of scramjet studies and the rise of the National Aerospace Plane (NASP) program of 1985–95, which sought to lay groundwork for single-stage vehicles. The program's ultimate shortcomings — in terms of aerodynamics, propulsion, and materials — are discussed, and the book concludes with a look at hypersonics in the post-NASP era, including the development of the X-33 and X-34 launch vehicles, further uses for scramjets, and advances in fluid mechanics. Clearly, ongoing research in hypersonics has yet to reach its full potential, and readers with an interest in aeronautics and astronautics will find this book a fascinating exploration of the field's history and future.

Equilibrium convective heat transfer in several real gases was investigated. The gases considered were air, nitrogen, hydrogen, carbon dioxide, and argon. Solutions to the similar form of the boundary-layer equations were obtained for flight velocities to 30,000 ft/sec for a range of parameters sufficient to define the effects of pressure level, pressure gradient, boundary-layer-edge velocity, and wall temperature. Results are presented for stagnation-point heating and for the heating-rate distribution. For the range of parameters investigated the wall heat transfer depended on the transport properties near the wall and precise evaluation of properties in the high-energy portions of the boundary layer was not needed. A correlation of the solutions to the boundary-layer equations was obtained which depended only on the low temperature properties of the gases. This result can be used to evaluate the heat transfer in gases other than those considered. The largest stagnation-point heat transfer at a constant flight velocity was obtained for argon followed successively by carbon dioxide, air, nitrogen, and hydrogen. The blunt-body heating-rate distribution was found to depend mainly on the inviscid flow field. For each gas, correlation equations of boundary-layer thermodynamic and transport properties as a function of enthalpy are given for a wide range of pressures to a maximum enthalpy of 18,000 Btu/lb.