All –Optical Hypersonic Vehicle Sensor System Architecture for Combustion System and Airframe Health Monitoring

SCRAMJET-powered flight vehicles are being designed and developed by the Air Force, other DOD agencies, as well as NASA. The Air Force desires a SCRAMJET-powered missile for time-critical targets and deeply buried targets. Currently, there exists a void in the development of sensor system architectures that are capable of withstanding the flight conditions that SCRAMJET-powered vehicles will encounter. Typically, sensors exist to measure the necessary parameters, e.g. temperature, strain, speed, etc. However, designers currently lack a flexible, robust means of networking the sensors; in other words, designers lack an appropriate architecture for the sensor system. Zolo Technologies proposes the development and demonstration of an all-optical flight sensor system architecture to provide detailed information on the condition of SCRAMJET-powered flight vehicles. The sensor system utilizes a unique architecture employing optical fiber as its backbone to measure hypersonic combustion parameters, skin temperature, inlet velocity, and the shock front position in the inlet. The proposed system provides a clear path for the incorporation of additional sensors and should prove extremely robust for embedded flight applications since it primarily employs components that have passed stringent environmental tests for telecommunications applications.