The LIFT manufacturing research is preparing a development challenge to U.S. manufacturers in cooperation with the U.S. Dept. of Defense, toward development of “hypersonic and counter-hypersonic vehicles” that operate at Mach 5 or higher speeds. Detroit-based LIFT indicated that project proposals will be selected in three areas:
- Hypersonics modeling and simulation, including Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME);
- Advanced manufacturing methods for quality and production; and
- Advanced manufacturing for high-temperature composites.
The research institute emphasized that hypersonic/counter-hypersonic vehicles are among the DoD’s top development priorities, including establishment of a secure domestic supply base for such vehicles.
“Hypersonic” describes the aerodynamic capability to travel faster than the speed of sound, generally Mach 5 to Mach 10. The specific speed that a vehicle travels may vary depending on physical conditions and changes at different speeds. Hypersonics also concerns issues like molecular dissociation and ionization that occurs at different speeds, as well as consideration of specific heat capacity changes kinetic energy of a vehicle is converted into heat.
According to LIFT, the selected proposals will be provided up to $1 million for project development, not including cost-share, which is encouraged but not required.
LIFT will announce a formal project call in the coming weeks, including more details about specific topics and proposal requirements.
LIFT, the Lightweight Innovations for Tomorrow center, was established in 2014 to coordinate academic and industrial research into advanced lightweight mobility technologies. It is operated by the American Lightweight Materials Manufacturing Innovation Institute, and partly funded by the Dept. of Defense and managed through the Office of Naval Research.
