French ONERA looks at future hypersonic planes and increased manoeuvrability for next generation fighters with Espadon and SuperMan projects
Hypersonic was definitely a subject of discussion at Le Bourget, ONERA, the French state-backed defence research agency, showing the first concept model of a hypersonic aircraft, the project being known as Espadon, while interesting videos could be seen of wind tunnel tests at low speed related to a research project aiming at increasing manoeuvrability at low speed for next generation fighters, part of the SuperMan project
Following the steps of some other major players on the world aviation scenario such as China, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States, in strict alphabetic order, France decided to also move into the hypersonic domain, the task falling upon the ONERA.
The work started some four years ago but surfaced only shortly before the inauguration of the Paris Air Show 2023; in fact the ONERA has been working for some decades in the hypersonic domain, the years being devoted to the Espadon project, which studies are focused on what might become tomorrow’s aviation, concentrating on concepts and identifying key technologies, as well as speed envelopes and altitudes related to potential missions, highlighting possible problems.
Understanding flight domains, flight characteristics and limitations is a first step before moving to the true development phase, which for the moment, according to ONERA sources, will be mostly aimed towards an unmanned aircraft, human factors being a limit at those speed. However “although currently we are not considering a pilot on board, this does not forbid us to think about it,” EDR On-Line was told.
Why an aircraft and not a missile? “One issue is range, which will be well in excess of 1,000 km, another one being the number of missions, much wider than those of a missile, as well as the capacity to be re-tasked in flight and to be redeployed on a different base, an aircraft being much more flexible than a missile,” we were told. The ONERA and the French Air and Space Force are talking together to identify missions and discuss feasibility issues based on technologies, as well as identify threats, current and future, which might face the future hypersonic aircraft issued from the Espadon project.
The role of science is to push innovation, and the ONERA is currently considering different issues such as thermal shock, new materiel being needed, propulsion, and aerodynamics. Air intakes are an issue, the model exhibited showing one of the potential solutions, another problem to be solved being the release of weapons from a weapons bay at hypersonic speed.
René Mathurin, the director of defence programmes at ONERA made it clear that an aircraft flying at over Mach 5, which means hypersonic, will not be available before 2040-50. The ONERA is not aiming at designing an aircraft but, as previously said, its target being to identify those technologies needed to build such an aircraft. The project, which is carried out on internal financing, EDR On-Line understood a 5 million Euro budget is currently available, was launched at the request of the French General Armaments Directorate (DGA).
Technologies developed within the Espadon project might come to fruition well before the appearance of a hypersonic aircraft, as some might be already used in the development of the New Generation Fighter, which is part of the Future Combat Air System programme.
To this end the ONERA is working on projects that should provide results in the shorter term. The SuperMan project, nothing to do with the cartoons superhero as it is the acronym for Super Manoeuvrability, aims at finding solutions for increasing the plane agility at very low speed and high angles of attack. A series of wind tunnel tests were carried out on models featuring ailerons on the wing leading edge, the ONERA exploiting for this its low speed wind tunnel in Lille.
Photos courtesy ONERA and P. Valpolini
