Atmospheric Cruise Flight Challenges for Hypersonic Vehicles Under the Ajax Concept

The challenges of atmospheric cruise flight of a hydrocarbon-fueled hypersonic flight vehicle under the Ajax concept are discussed in this paper. Particular emphasis has been placed on innovative technologies of mastering hypersonic flight velocities that provide for the creation of active thermal protection as well as a magnetoplasmachemical engine. Thermal protection ensures not only cooling of construction, but also production of a hydrogenous mixture, improving combustion behavior. The magnetohydrodynamic effect on the flow makes it possible to enhance the specific impulse of the engine and to create a controllable inlet under an offdesign flight condition. The expediency of magnetohydrodynamic generator application onboard a hypersonic flight vehicle as a power source has also been demonstrated.