The University of Queensland's scramjet program got a huge boost Monday with the Queensland Government announcing that it was contributing $2 million (US$1.46 million) towards its research.

Speaking from a meeting with Boeing's top executives in Chicago today, Deputy Premier, Treasurer and Minister for State Development, Trade and Innovation Anna Bligh announced that the University of Queensland's Centre for Hypersonics is one of 13 recipients who will receive a National and International Research Alliances grant.

"The grant will allow the Centre to build advanced scramjet prototypes and undertake prolonged flight tests at speeds of over Mach 8 - more than eight times the speed of sound," Ms Bligh said.

Scramjets -- supersonic combustion ramjets -- work by harnessing the air pressure generated by motion through the air at supersonic speeds to ingest large amounts of oxygen which mixes with hydrogen fuel, generating engine thrust. Conventional jets have to use spinning fans to compress the oxygen in air to a high enough pressure for combustion.

The Centre for Hypersonics launched a segment of a Scramjet for the first time in 2002.

"In the past fortnight the Centre achieved two successful liftoffs at the Defence testing range at Woomera in South Australia," Ms Bligh said.

"The experiments, HyShot(TM) III and HyShot(TM) IV, involved collaboration between UQ and high-level international agencies.

"HyShot(TM) III achieved combustion using a prototype scramjet part- developed by the British Ministry of Defence. It aimed to reach Mach 7.6 -- a speed of almost 8000km per hour. HyShot(TM) IV was a commission from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency."

She said if the technology could be made viable, scramjets could replace rockets launching satellite communications, given their greater efficiency in terms of not having to carry their own oxygen in liquid form.

"The technology also has potential for hypersonic travel down the track, with a flight from Sydney to London taking several hours," Ms Bligh said.

"Although scramjet powered passenger jets are still a long way off, according to UQ researchers, it might be possible to have a scramjet powered vehicle within the next 10 years or so, for example, that could carry vital organs for urgently needed medical transplant operations," Ms Bligh said.

She said because scramjet technology literally runs on air and hydrogen and emits only water during its travel, it is more environmentally responsible than some current rocket technology which often uses hydrocarbon or solid chemical fuels which can pollute the atmosphere.

"The University of Queensland will develop the scramjet prototypes in collaboration with Boeing and the Commonwealth Department of Defence's research arm, the Defence Science and Technology Organisation. The collaboration announced today with Boeing will result in design and flight testing of advanced hypersonic aerodynamic and propulsion technologies.

"One of the issues they'll try to overcome is the sheer amount of heat generated by the new technology, with the engine producing temperatures of greater than 2,000 degrees Celsius," Ms Bligh said.

"They'll also work at trying to develop a scramjet capable of seven to 10 minutes of free flight over 1000 kilometres."

The National and International Research Alliances grant is part of the Innovation Projects Fund -- one of the new funds of the recently announced $200 million (US$146 million) Smart State Innovation Funding Program which aims to build world-class research facilities, attract top-quality scientists to Queensland and stimulate cutting-edge research projects.

"The Queensland Government has invested nearly $3 billion (US$2.19 billion) in innovation, science and research since 1998. I think this demonstrates our deep and ongoing commitment to maintaining Queensland's reputation as the Smart State," Ms Bligh said.

Boeing has committed funding of $2 million (US $1.46 million) to support the University of Queenland's Centre for Hypersonics. Ms Bligh met with Boeing executives today to discuss the aerospace giant's investment in Queensland, including this collaborative agreement between the University of Queensland and Boeing, the details of which are still being finalized.

"With the level of experience and success that both Boeing and the University of Queensland have in demonstrating hypersonic technology, our collaborative efforts could very well open new frontiers in aerospace," said Dr. Bob Krieger, president of Boeing Phantom Works, the advance research and development unit of the company.

On the X-43A Hyper-X program, in 2004 Phantom Works and NASA successfully conducted the first-ever free flights of an operating scramjet engine integrated with a hypersonic airframe, achieving speeds of Mach 7 and Mach 10. Phantom Works is teamed with the Advanced Systems group of Boeing's Integrated Defense Systems business on a number of other hypersonics projects, including this collaboration project with UQ.

Boeing employs 3,500 people in Australia, with 75 percent of its workforce based in Queensland. Boeing maintains RAAF's F-111 fleet at Amberley and is currently modifying 737 aircraft there as Airborne Early Warning and Control 'Wedgetail' aircraft.

In December last year, Boeing won a $145 million (US$106 million) contract to provide a fleet of Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicles to the Australian Defence Force. These will be based at Enoggera Barracks in Brisbane.

FMI: www.uq.edu.au