Chennai:
Indian scientists are working to develop hypersonic
missile which would travel at least five times the speed of sound.
Delivering the keynote address at the Conference on
Defence Education in India 2012 here on Friday, chief executive officer and
managing director BrahMos Aerospace Dr A Sivathanu Pillai revealed that
scientists are currently working to develop hypersonic missiles
He said Indian scientists are working on the development
of air vehicles that can be maneuvered at speeds beyond Mach 5 (6,125kph).
Interestingly, Indian scientists have already gained the mastery over
supersonic missiles with the development of BrahMos, which is the world’s
fastest cruise missile in operation. The missile travels at a speed of Mach 2.8
to 3.0 with a maximum range of 290 km.
He said the the quest is on to develop scramjet, a new
technology propulsion system which hasn’t been successfully tested in the world
till now. Scramjet (supersonic combustion ramjet) is a variant of a ramjet
airbreathing jet engine in which combustion takes place in supersonic airflow. This
allows the scramjet to operate efficiently at extremely high speeds.
He also stressed that universities could help develop technology
like Nano Hummingbird, developed by United States Defense Advancement Research
Projects Agency (DARPA), for indoor and outdoor surveillance mission. He said
there is a need for applied research and not fundamental research in Indian
universities. He said currently defence research development organization is focusing
on technology incubation in multiple universities.
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