CU-Boulder Wins $1 Million Grant as Part of National Hypersonic Science Center

Nov. 6, 2009

The University of Colorado at Boulder will help to usher in a new era of high-temperature materials for hypersonic flight as part of a multi-institutional center launched this fall.

CU-Boulder will receive $1 million over the next five years under a grant from Teledyne Scientific & Imaging of Thousand Oaks, California, which is leading the National Hypersonic Science Center (NHSC) for Materials and Structures. The center is jointly funded by NASA and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research at $10 million over five years.

Hypersonic flight is flying through the atmosphere at speeds of five times the speed of sound, about 3,800 mph, or faster.

“The NHSC will spearhead the development of materials systems for scramjet engines and leading edge protection in hypersonic flight. Materials will be developed that can sustain huge flux of heat across thin, sheet–like structures at temperatures exceeding 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit,” said principal investigator Rishi Raj, professor of mechanical engineering at CU-Boulder.

The technical and, equally important, educational objectives of the NHSC will be achieved by a highly interdisciplinary team of scientists and engineers drawing from Teledyne, University of California at Santa Barbara, University of Miami in Florida, Missouri University of Science and Technology at Rolla, University of California at Berkeley, University of Texas at Arlington and the University of Colorado at Boulder.

-CU-

Contact

Rishi Raj, 303-492-1029

Carol Rowe, 303-492-7426