NASA and the Air Force today said they would be offering up to $35 million to help fund research that could ultimately develop aircraft that can fly at over five-times the speed of sound or faster. Such hypersonic aircraft face myriad trajectory control, propulsion and heat-related issues akin to what a spacecraft would endure, experts say.

The joint announcement said: "Hypersonic aerodynamics research is critical to the Air Force's interest in long-range and space operations. The size and weight of a hypersonic vehicle, and thus its flight trajectory and required propulsion system, are largely determined by aerothermodynamic considerations. Research areas of interest emphasize the characterization, prediction and control of high-speed fluid dynamic phenomena including boundary layer transition, shock/boundary layer, and shock/shock interactions, and other phenomena associated with airframe-propulsion integration. High-temperature gas kinetics, aerothermodynamics and interactions between the hypersonic flow and thermal protection system materials are of particular interest."

http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/33027