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Hyplane: a single-stage suborbital aerospaceplane

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Abstract

This paper has the aim to report the status of the HYPLANE project to date. HYPLANE is a horizontal take-off and landing Mach 4.5 bizjet-size aerospaceplane conceived by Trans-Tech and University Federico II of Naples and under study within the industrial-academic ecosystem of the Campania Aerospace District (DAC). HYPLANE has the aim to offer very fast suborbital flight for space tourism, microgravity experimentation and training, and also shortening time to connect two distant airports within a door-to-door scenario. The concept is based on the access to stratospheric altitudes (30 km) for either point-to-point stratospheric or suborbital flights as safe as today's commercial air transportation, by integrating enhanced state-of-the-art aeronautical and space technologies. Essentially, HYPLANE is mostly based on already relatively high TRL technologies which guarantees a sufficiently short time to market. The low wing loading configuration and designed ability to manoeuvre along the flight trajectories at small angles of attack, allow HYPLANE to guarantee accelerations and load factors of the same order as those characterizing the present civil aviation aircraft (FAA/EASA specifications). Thanks to its technical features, it may operate from/to more than 5000 airports all over the world needing short runways to take-off and land, which for point-to-point business aviation is paramount. Furthermore, characteristics such as small dimension, configuration and high cruising altitude determine reduced noise in the airports surrounding and low sonic boom impact on ground. These conditions will further facilitate not only the development of the commercial use of such kind of transportation mean, but also its social acceptability.

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Data availability statement

Information about data can be requested by email to the corresponding author.

Notes

  1. Space Strategy for Europe, COM(2016) 705 final https://stip.oecd.org/stip/interactive-dashboards/policy-initiatives/2021%2Fdata%2FpolicyInitiatives%2F26561.

  2. Flightpath 2050—Europe’s Vision for Aviation, Maintaining Global Leadership & Serving Society’s Needs, European Commission Policy, 2011, https://doi.org/10.2777/50266.

  3. CS-23, Certification Specifications for Normal, Utility, Aerobatic, and Commuter Category Aeroplanes.

    CS-25, Certification Specifications and Acceptable Means of Compliance for Large Aeroplanes.

Abbreviations

ASAS:

Airborne separation assistance system

ATC:

Air traffic control

ATS:

Air traffic service

ATM:

Air traffic management

CAGR:

Compound annual growth rate

CFD:

Computational fluid dynamics

DAC:

Campania aerospace district

EASA:

European aviation safety agency

E-SFP:

Extended supersonic fixed point

ERJ:

Ejector-ramjet mode

EW:

Empty weight

FAA:

Federal aviation administration

FFAS:

Free flight airspace

FL:

Flight level

FRJ:

Fan-ramjet mode

HASA:

Hypersonic aerospace sizing analysis

HTHL:

Horizontal take-off horizontal landing

ICAO:

International CIVIL AVIATION ORGANIZATION

IFR:

Instrumental flight route

L/D:

Lift-over-drag ratio

MAS:

Managed airspace

MTOW:

Maximum takeoff weight

RBCC:

Rocket-based combined cycle

RJ:

Ramjet mode

SAF:

Sustainable aviation fuel

SERJ:

Supercharged ejector ram-jet

STEP:

Suborbital test polygon

TBCC:

Turbine-based combined cycle

TRL:

Technology readiness level

VFR:

Visual flight route

XCG :

Abscissa of the centre of gravity from the nose of the aircraft

References

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Acknowledgements

The HYPLANE project has been conceived by Trans-Tech and University of Naples Federico II which have conducted the feasibility and preliminary design activities, with the self-funded support by several public and private entities in Italy and abroad. The authors are specifically grateful to the members of the DAC Working Group Hypersonics, and among other: Alessandro Manzo (3DnA), Giorgio Fusco (Aerosoft), Aniello De Prisco (ATM), Michele Visone (Blue Engineering), Giovanni Maresca (BService-Eng), Michelangelo Giuliani (Caltec), Valerio Pisacane (Euro.Soft), Bonaventura Vitolo (Geven), Arturo Moccia (LeadTech), Roberto Vitiello (MBDA Italia), Mario Ciaburri (NAIS), Antonio Caraviello (Sòphia High Tech), Dario Castagnolo (Telespazio), Salvatore Cardone (Tecnosistem), Giancarlo Pagliocca (Trans-Tech), Francesco Monti (TSD), Sara Di Benedetto and Marco Marini (CIRA), Pietro Ferraro (CNR-ISASI), Gabriella Rossi (ENEA), Rosario Mascolo (SSIP), Giuseppe Pezzella (Univ. Campania, L. Vanvitelli), Raffaele Savino (Univ. Naples Federico II).

Funding

The part of this work related to the HYPERION version of the project is co-financed by the Italian Ministry of Defence under contract n. 985-2021.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Campania Aerospace District, DAC, Via Coroglio 57, 80124, Naples, Italy

    Gennaro Russo & Claudio Voto

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  1. Gennaro Russo
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  2. Claudio Voto
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Correspondence to Gennaro Russo.

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Russo, G., Voto, C. Hyplane: a single-stage suborbital aerospaceplane. CEAS Space J 15, 781–795 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12567-023-00494-z

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