Chennai:
Could India develop a hyperplane? Yes! says India’s noted scientist
Sivathanu Pillai, who is working on the project to build a hyperplane
which will use hydrogen based fuel and is 25 times faster than sound.
Speaking on the sidelines of being conferred with Lifetime Achievement
Award by Rotary Club of Madras, Pillai says the success to hyperplane
lies in the mastery of scramjet technology, a type of very fast jet
engine.
Although United States and China have been successful with scram jet
engine but the irony is they have yet to design materials which can
withstand the heat generated from an object travelling at such high
speed.
Usually in a high speed aircraft, air friction cause extreme heating
of the leading edge and temperature could be very high (Mach 5
generates 1,000 degree Celsius).
Currently, there is no technology which can withstand the heat, says
Pillai, who is also former chief controller, Research and Development
in Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO).
He said the Indian Space Research Organisation, DRDO and other
organizations are working to develop Hyperplane.
The scientist also said that air-to-air variant of the supersonic
BrahMos cruise missile is likely to take some more time. He said that
the integration (of the missile) has been done with the aircraft. But
there are many other aspects,” he said.
Earlier the plan was to launch it before December 2014, he said.
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