Flight Mechanics Analyses of HYPERION Suborbital Aircraft

Hypersonic flight aims at revolutionizing both commercial travel and military capabilities by enabling ultra-fast global transfer and improved space access. Over the past 20 years, several European funded programs concerning hypersonic vehicles have been carried out. HYPERION vehicle, which fits into this research framework, is a suborbital aircraft, with hybrid turbo-ramjet/rocket propulsion for dual use functions. It is designed to take-off and land horizontally from short runways without the aid of launch platforms, and to carry on repeated suborbital flight missions during a single flight. This vehicle represents a new concept of hypersonic aircraft that integrates space and aeronautical technologies able to offer access to space in a practical and safe way. This paper presents the flight mechanics activities performed to support the design of the HYPERION aircraft in the feasibility assessment phase of the project. They aimed to assess the flying qualities of the vehicle, to compute the nominal trajectory for one of the aircraft typical missions and to define a preliminary control system architecture. Performed analyses pointed out that the planned mission is feasible, and the HYPERION aircraft shows good flying qualities and satisfactory control characteristics, although vehicle configuration and mission trajectory shall still be optimized. Indeed, the results obtained highlighted some open issues and provided useful information for the next design loops of the project.