Engineering topics
Publications and source records attributed to Wright, George F., Jr..
The topics of current programs of material and structures for hypersonics are: (1) National Aero-Space Plane (NASP) supports most programs (100M + for materials); and (2) NASA generic hypersonics.
The testing of coated carbon-carbon materials at high temperature in a nonequilibrium arc-driven environment is examined. Material specimens were exposed to high energy supersonic air exhausting from the NASA-Ames Research Center's 20-MW arc-jet facility. The materials were heated to required temperatures with arc-heated air for specified lengths of time. A total of 23 models were tested in two groups. In the first group of 19 samples, there were several samples that survived low test conditions and several more that survived intermediate test conditions that provided surface temperatures up to 3850 deg Rankine, but none survived when the surface temperature exceeded 4000 deg Rankine. The last four test samples with their higher surface temperatures did not fully survive either if the survival criterion is that the material must be reusable after the test.