Air Force Designates Hypersonic Test Vehicle X-60A

The Air Force has designated the GOLauncher1 (GO1) hypersonic flight research vehicle as X-60A. The vehicle is being developed by Generation Orbit Launch Services Inc. under contract to the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), Aerospace Systems Directorate, High Speed Systems Division.

It is an air-dropped liquid rocket, specifically designed for hypersonic flight research to mature technologies including scramjet propulsion, high-temperature materials and autonomous control. The X-60A rocket vehicle propulsion system is the Hadley liquid rocket engine, which utilizes liquid oxygen and kerosene propellants. The system is designed to provide affordable and regular access to high dynamic pressure flight conditions between Mach 5 and Mach 8.

AFRL’s motivation for the X-60A program is to increase the frequency of flight testing while lowering the cost of maturing hypersonic technologies in relevant flight conditions. Utilizing new space commercial development, licensing and operations practices, X-60A is envisioned to provide the Air Force, other U.S. government agencies and industry with a platform to more rapidly mature technologies. While hypersonic ground test facilities are vital in technology development, those technologies also must be tested under actual hypersonic flight conditions.

“The X-60A is like a flying wind tunnel to capture data that complements our current ground test capability,” Col. Colin Tucker, USAF, military deputy, office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Science, Technology, and Engineering, says in a written statement. “We’ve long needed this type of test vehicle to better understand how materials and other technologies behave while flying at more than five times the speed of sound. It enables faster development of both our current hypersonic weapon rapid prototypes and evolving future systems.”

This is the first Air Force Small Business Innovative Research program to receive an experimental “X” designation.