SHEFEX - A Low Cost Highly Efficient Flight Experiment

Abstract

The SHarp Edge Flight EXperiment, SHEFEX is aimed to investigate the behaviour and the possibilities of an improved shape for aerospace vehicles considering sharp edges and facetted surfaces. It is a basic in-flight experimentation research on hypersonic technologies for future launcher vehicles but not a re-entry experiment, being performed under responsibility of the German Aerospace Center (DLR). Here it is briefly described the overall philosophy of the project, schedule for flight on top of a sounding rocket in the first half of 2005. The approaches adopted on each of the involved disciplines, i.e. mission system and launcher; aerodynamics, aerothermodynamics and in-flight measurement techniques, structure and thermal protection systems, including the passenger experiments are also discussed. The paper is aimed to show that the approach here proposed is an economical way to acquire important knowledge in the physics of the hypersonic flow.