An Advanced Test Platform Software to Accelerate Hypersonic Testing

Affordable, reusable hypersonic systems have the potential to enhance many USAF mission sets to include rapid ISR, Strike and Cargo Delivery.Ā The need for reusable hypersonic platforms are endorsed by numerous DoD and Intelligence Community customers, and both venture-backed startups and traditional defense firms are developing reusable hypersonic platform concepts.Ā However, U.S. testing capability has not kept pace with our adversaries.Ā One key bottleneck in the testing process is the time it takes to analyze data from hundreds of sensors and billions or trillions of data points.Ā Currently this is a manual, time-consuming process with little data visualization and integration with advanced physics-based models. Ā In the proposed SBIR program, APEX Turbine Testing and the University of Notre Dame will adapt commercial automated data analysis, data visualization and model integration techniques developed for the commercial gas turbine engine community and apply them to hypersonic propulsion and vehicle integration challenges.Ā Testing of prototype software will be conduct at UNDÆs high mach test facilities in partnership with hypersonic developers.Ā The goal of this effort is to demonstrate a 3X or better reduction in data analysis time, and developing an architecture and engineering protocols for enhanced test data and model integration.Ā The output will be an open-architecture test software platform that will provide engineering-relevant data analysis in a near-real time, visual manner.