Hypersonic Projectile

Hypersonic flight is a developing field in aerospace engineering that is very important to both military and civilian applications and is an area of interest for Northrop Grumman. There are currently many different methods of launching a hypersonic projectile, including railguns, rocket stages, and gas-powered guns. This opportunity requires innovation in areas like aerodynamics, propulsion, structures, and materials science. Designing a low altitude hypersonic system requires consideration of multiple factors stemming from efficiency and viability. Current hypersonic systems require large quantities of both research and man hours, leading to incredible designs that suffer due to their high production cost and lack of specific functional requirements. This project provides an opportunity to develop a hypersonic flight vehicle that maximizes range and minimizes cost, using principal manufacturing/design methods to create a highly effective hypersonic flight vehicle. Additionally, this project provides an opportunity to submit the projectile design to the University Consortium for Applied Hypersonics Undergraduate Hypersonic Flight Design Competition and to test the design in the Army Research Lab upon winning.