Is this website about hypersonics legitimate ? (EDIT: It's absolute fiction)

[Selective Genius]

Is this legit? It reeks of optimism, but I am not an aviation expert, so I wont know..

http://www.ioaircraft.com/hypersonic/blueedge.php

This person has blueprints of hypersonic transport, VTOL SSTO and hydrogen-powered commercial airliners. According to him these are all "based on my (his) own technology advances in Hypersonics which make Lockheed and Boeing look ancient."

Edit: There's also a flickr page

The pictures are pretty though....

Edited April 14, 2021 by Selective Genius

[Elthy]

Someone had some fun with a CAD software and added some repurposed bovine waste-bingo words to look fancy. Just look at that last image you posted, do those flat tanks look like they can hold 8000psi = 550bar of pressure? Ive seen state-of-the art COPVs that can hold that much and its impressive how thick the carbon fibre has to be for that, on a round tank...

[Shpaget]

70t payload to LEO on a SSTO? He'll need to show a lot more than a render.

[Codraroll]

3 hours ago, Selective Genius said:

According to him these are all "based on my (his) own technology advances in Hypersonics which make Lockheed and Boeing look ancient."

That's a red flag the size of a tennis court right there.  Phrases that are variations of "I know this better than the professionals" can be directly translated into "I know so little I can't even understand what I don't know". Dunning and Kruger would probably consider him an interesting study object.

[JcoolTheShipbuilder]

Yep... reeeeks red flags, the flat “high pressure” tanks has a spherical red flag literally..

even if I have plasma engines on my concept plane, it would still not be that amazing of an SSTO (if at all) and I would seek info wether it may work.

also, the “delivery ssto” is just wrong for hypersonic aerodynamics, especially the curved intakes... it will cause extreme drag.

39 minutes ago, Codraroll said:

That's a red flag the size of a tennis court right there.  Phrases that are variations of "I know this better than the professionals" can be directly translated into "I know so little I can't even understand what I don't know". Dunning and Kruger would probably consider him an interesting study object.

Yes i agree a ton with what you said

this is effectively nearing the peak of that lol..

[sevenperforce]

I, for one, am LOVING the idea of making an SSTO that burns compressed hydrogen gas and compressed GOX. Whatever THOSE tanks are made of, I want to build a car out of them.

[Selective Genius]

52 minutes ago, Codraroll said:

That's a red flag the size of a tennis court right there.

Yeah, that sentence on one of his flickr post and some questionable claims made me 95% sure that this is a scam. But I was still holding out hope that maybe, just maybe I found a mad genius.

But I wonder why he is doing this.. His website appears pretty genuine at the first glance, he has listed several pending patent filings which include, and I kid you not " Mass Production of Graphene, CVD, 95-97% Cost Reduction" "3D Printing Graphene, using Graphene Oxide Dust" (I think the so-called patents are hot air).

Is he LARPing as Elon Musk?

Just now, sevenperforce said:

I, for one, am LOVING the idea of making an SSTO that burns compressed hydrogen gas and compressed GOX. Whatever THOSE tanks are made of, I want to build a car out of them.

Almost 100% Graphene and Kevlar according to the guy.

[kerbiloid]

Had anybody mentioned propellers?

[sevenperforce]

5 minutes ago, Selective Genius said:

7 minutes ago, sevenperforce said:

I, for one, am LOVING the idea of making an SSTO that burns compressed hydrogen gas and compressed GOX. Whatever THOSE tanks are made of, I want to build a car out of them.

Almost 100% Graphene and Kevlar according to the guy.

It's like he never learned what COPV stands for.

[Shpaget]

2 hours ago, Selective Genius said:

Graphene Oxide

As in carbon mono/dioxide?

[Selective Genius]

8 minutes ago, Shpaget said:

As in carbon mono/dioxide?

Yup I think so. Maybe he thought an allotrope of carbon would make oxides in powder form? Of course he has nothing more to show about these so called 'advancements in material science'.

This man has the nerve to write the following sentence on his website (http://www.ioaircraft.com/hypersonic.php) in glaring red text color, and I quote: "NOTE: ALL engineering and physics of our hypersonic developments and scramjet engineering, is minimum 30 years more advanced then all programs in existence. Because of this, we are extremely protective of engineering details."

And this gem, write under the red text  ->

Every aspect of our hypersonics engineering and physics is multiple decades ahead of all programs in existence. While others work within a box, we don't have a box, we burned it.

Gosh darn I feel so stupid for thinking he could be a real mad genius. That website is literal meme material.

Edited April 14, 2021 by Selective Genius

[SOXBLOX]

Oh, heck, no. Any single guy who claims to be outdoing the entire American aerospace industry is a quack, at the least.

Cute little linear aerospike on the last one, along with his main tank "oirentation". 

I don't see mention of a cooling system, either. The SR-71 needed a complex air conditioner system to keep the pilot from cooking. So, for 244 people, at Mach 9...

And that "fighter"... A Mach 10 ejection seat alone would be a huge challenge, yeah? But a whole fighter! LOL.

[JcoolTheShipbuilder]

Omg I just looked at that “linear aerospike” and I lost a few brain cells I think, as HOW IS THAT GOING TO WORK LIKE AN AEROSPIKE?! It’s like two engines on each side with lazily merged nozzles that are nowhere near correct, and the part that merges are unaerodynamic. And there’s that tiny af wedge... how does that qualify as an aerospike... most of the exhaust is going to miss the microscopic thing. With that reasoning, the Concorde had a single aerospike. And then the fuel.... it would be significantly easier and far safer for designated passenger section and a fuel section with round tank instead of encapsulating the passengers in fuel. And there’s no apparent cooling... and that’s just one of them...

also looks like there’s no way to get in seats without crawling over... also, lavatories with an inch thick 550 bar fuel tank? Uh. No. Just..... the bs is so bad that I’m trying my best to not criticize it so hard it’s it’s own mega thread from it.....

Edited April 14, 2021 by JcoolTheShipbuilder

[DDE]

1 hour ago, SOXBLOX said:

And that "fighter"... A Mach 10 ejection seat alone would be a huge challenge, yeah? But a whole fighter! LOL.

Not to mention the fourth-gens were quite a bit slower than the third-gens for a reason.

[magnemoe]

4 hours ago, sevenperforce said:

I, for one, am LOVING the idea of making an SSTO that burns compressed hydrogen gas and compressed GOX. Whatever THOSE tanks are made of, I want to build a car out of them.

Good point, but doubt if an 3d weave of carbon nanotube inside a diamond resign would be strong enough  
And yes the obvious problem then the oxygen interact with carbon. 
 

 

 

[sevenperforce]

44 minutes ago, JcoolTheShipbuilder said:

Omg I just looked at that “linear aerospike” and I lost a few brain cells I think, as HOW IS THAT GOING TO WORK LIKE AN AEROSPIKE?! It’s like two engines on each side with lazily merged nozzles that are nowhere near correct, and the part that merges are unaerodynamic. And there’s that tiny af wedge... how does that qualify as an aerospike... most of the exhaust is going to miss the microscopic thing. With that reasoning, the Concorde had a single aerospike. And then the fuel.... it would be significantly easier and far safer for designated passenger section and a fuel section with round tank instead of encapsulating the passengers in fuel. And there’s no apparent cooling... and that’s just one of them...

also looks like there’s no way to get in seats without crawling over... also, lavatories with an inch thick 550 bar fuel tank? Uh. No. Just..... the bs is so bad that I’m trying my best to not criticize it so hard it’s it’s own mega thread from it.....

Someone please stop me I'm laughing too hard to breathe!!

"Fuel weight with maximum fuel load, is only around 6,700 LBS of compressed hydrogen. That's right, only around 6,700 LBS; because it no longer uses liquid fuels. 

"To compare that to a regular fixed with aircraft,  Raven is like taking off on empty, when considering the weight. It's light, which means it can fly very height without the drag from huge volumes of fuel. Instead, it's fuel is 8.000-16,000 PSI compressed hydrogen providing a massive volume of fuel capacity; which is required for such extreme thrust and velocities."

So are "huge volumes of fuel" a bad thing because of the drag, or are they "required for extreme thrust and velocities"? And what is "very height"? Is that like "very doge"?

And don't even get me started on BlueEdge.....

"Kerosene, ie Jet A is 6.7 LBS per gallon, and that would easily be 335,000 LBS of fuel. 8,000 PSI compressed Hydrogen, is only 5% of the fuel weight.... That means, take off for BlueEdge at MAX fuel load, is only a rounding error compared to empty weight.   The aircraft is light as a feather, making high altitude flight possible, but also efficient due to weight = drag."

Whyyyyyyy

And the VTOL two-passenger hypersonic aircraft with 90 DEGREE THRUST VECTORING AEROSPIKE SCRAMJET

Oh and the weapons systems, the weapons systems:

"This version is ground launchable, in which the Stage 1 booster accelerates the platform to 225,000-250,000ft, then releases. The semi internal booster then accelerates the missile platform to Mach 20 at an altitude of 300,000 ft very rapidly and let inertia continue it's arc in LEO. At that time, the missile platform is flying inverted operating in glide mode and can navigate; similar to Lockeed's BGV and China's HTV.  Except when it has re-entered atmosphere around 150,000ft, it rolls over and converts to scramjet under power. At this time the missile platform can turn and bank, change attitude, etc.  What any advanced radar system that could detect the craft and plot it's trajectory; well that trajectory just changed.  

"The hypersonic platform can either choose to extend the range for glide to target after fuel is expended, or it can choose to hit its target at full momentum and scramjet propulsion system is in full burn mode hitting its target at Mach 20 at impact, releasing over 120,000 LBS of Kinetic energy."

What......what sort of energy measurement is "120,000 LBS" here? TNT equivalent? Blast wave overpressure? Pure mass-enegy conversion?

"The Zircoff Hypersonic Missile is designed and engineered for low altitude high atmosphere density. It is meant to replace Hellfire Missiles, TOW Missiles, and expand Missile capabilities. 

"The missile can be ground or air launched; from fixed positions, mounted to armor and wheeled vehicles, AH-64 Apache's, Drones, A-10's, F-16's, F-18's, F-35's, etc. If it can be mounted, it can be launched. Including tripod's for non vehicle ground troops.

"For example if troops are requesting air support, they instead can provide the GPS location of target, while an FOB can input those coordinates and launch. Within 60 seconds or less, that target will be eliminated with extreme prejudice."

Yes, it DEFINITELY sounds like a good idea. Ground troops! How would you like to fire a Mach 10 scramjet from this tripod?

 

[Shpaget]

Does he really think that volume of fuel is what give you dv?

I'm just waitin for you guys to dig out him claiming that more H2 he crams into the tanks, more buoyant the entire thing gets, since everybody knows that hydrogen is lighter than air, and more hydrogen more lightererer. If he can reach 15 000 PSI, he might float to space like a blimp.

 

[Selective Genius]

This guy designed an ejection seat for a hypersonic craft. If nothing else, it's good world-building for a sci-fi movie, at least.

2 hours ago, SOXBLOX said:

A Mach 10 ejection seat alone would be a huge challenge

24 minutes ago, Shpaget said:

I'm just waitin for you guys to dig out him claiming that more H2 he crams into the tanks, more buoyant the entire thing gets, since everybody knows that hydrogen is lighter than air, and more hydrogen more lightererer. If he can reach 15 000 PSI, he might float to space like a blimp.

Not exactly, but close.

Quote

Raven in atmosphere configuration to become a business jet, but since it is so light and at those velocities, is able to cruise from 100,000-125,000ft altitude.   In comparison, the SR-71 Blackbird cruised at 70,000ft atmosphere due to it being fueled by hydro carbon, ie Kerosene and weight much more due to that aspect.

This guy also claims that Boeing apparently "cloned" his designs after he submitted those to DARPA

And apparently the 'Raven' will deploy a forward thruster on it's nose to 'rapidly decelerate to under 12,000 mph ground speed to increase descent rate dramatically for re-entry'

This is the little thruster that will do that. But why? and how?

Edited April 14, 2021 by Selective Genius

[sevenperforce]

He calls compressed GOX "CO2" apparently not realizing what CO₂ is.

53 minutes ago, Selective Genius said:

apparently the 'Raven' will deploy a forward thruster on it's nose to 'rapidly decelerate to under 12,000 mph ground speed to increase descent rate dramatically for re-entry'

Translating orbital speed into ground speed is just the best.

[linuxgurugamer]

Nice pictures

[Codraroll]

It's starting to look less and less like somebody getting things hilariously wrong, and more and more like a serious lapse of mental health ... with good access to 3D modelling software.

[FleshJeb]

I kind of want to hit up the Contact page, pretending to be one of:

• An enthusiastic venture capitalist
• Retired Air Force General-turned-defense industry "consultant"
• A particularly venal congresscritter

Must include the line, "Liquid fuels and the metric system are a Communist plot."

Unfortunately the creative writing bug and the necessary sadism are not coming together.

EDIT: Nevermind, I did a little doxxing, and I'll skip it.

Edited April 15, 2021 by FleshJeb

[Nuke]

its sort of like skylon, but without the revolutionary engine design that the whole thing would depend on to function. and people capable of designing engines. 

[SOXBLOX]

5 hours ago, sevenperforce said:

"The Zircoff Hypersonic Missile is...

Totally not Tsircon!

Quote

For laymen's, in common terms, Kerosene is 25 Octane, ...

Not sure whether this guy even qualifies for layman. Great comedian, though.

[SOXBLOX]

Aaaaand then there's this:

Quote

Easily able to surpass 500,000 PSI tensile strength, the tanks are incorporated into the airframes themselves and become the backbone of the internal airframe ...

So, don't these hypothetical magic tanks depend on internal pressure to remain strong? There's a difference between tensile strength and compression/load-bearing strength...

Edit: Oops, thought my replies would merge.

Edited April 15, 2021 by SOXBLOX