An agreement between Defence Science and Technology (DST) and the University of Queensland is expected to result in advanced research being undertaken in in-flight science and enabling technologies.
Chief Defence Scientist Alex Zelinsky said the $10 million agreement will result in the consolidation of both parties’ test facilities to leverage the expertise of academic and industry researchers and international partners.
“Professor Richard Morgan, the University of Queensland’s Director of the Centre for Hypersonics, has been appointed to provide expertise in the development and operation of advanced large-scale test facilities and facilitate closer collaboration under the agreement,” Dr Zelinsky said.
“In 2017, Professor Morgan (pictured) became the only non-United States scientist to have received a hypersonic systems and technologies award from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.”
He said Australia was a world leader in high speed flight science with more than 10 years of joint flight experimentation by DST, the University of Queensland and industry.
“High-speed flight science is one of the priority areas to be developed under the Next Generation Technologies Fund, a program focusing on research and development in emerging and future technologies,” Dr Zelinsky said.
High-speed flight is also of interest to civilian organisations with plans for hypersonic airliners that could fly at up to five times the speed of sound.
