Centre for Hypersonics

Hypersonic aerodynamics has been a major research activity at The University of Queensland over the last 20 years.

Our researchers have been active internationally during that period, and have been involved in collaborative research programs with about 20 universities and research organisations around the world. 

The UQ Centre of Hypersonics research program is based around the facilities and equipment developed in-house at UQ in the late 1980s by a space engineering and hypersonics pioneer and Australia’s first professor of space engineering, Professor Ray Stalker, along with Professor Morgan and colleagues. It has since become widely recognised as one of the leading university-based research groups in the field of Hypersonics and has active collaborations with international universities and research groups including those in France, Germany, Belgium, United Kingdom, United States, Japan, India and China.

The centre's objectives are:

  • to provide visible international leadership in the centre's areas of expertise in hypersonics,
  • to maintain a high level of activity in both fundamental and applied research,
  • to provide graduate and undergraduate training opportunities of the highest international standards and
  • to play a pivotal role as collaborators in major international projects.

The centre's areas of expertise are:

  • Development of test facilities based on shock wave generation (shock tunnels, expansion tunnels, light-gas guns, blast generators)
  • SCRAMjet propulsion (experiment, analysis and design)
  • Rocket-launched flight testing
  • Aerothermodynamic experimentation and analysis
  • Advanced instrumentation for aerodynamic measurements
  • Computational fluid dynamic analysis of high-speed transient and steady flows
  • Optical diagnostics for hypervelocity superorbital flows

The website of the Centre for Hypersonics was archived several times by the PANDORA project - Australia's Web Archive project established initially by the National Library of Australia in 1996, and built in collaboration with other Australian libraries and cultural collecting organisations.