A New Integrated Control System to Improve Hypersonic Vehicles

Hypersonic vehicles are considered a critical technology to address key national security challenges, according to the U.S. Department of Defense. They travel at a speed of about one mile per second and are maneuverable. The U.S. government has made significant investments in developing hypersonic technologies and the U.S. Army has already fielded a ground-based hypersonic weapon system.

As they fly through the atmosphere, hypersonic vehicles encounter severe aerodynamic challenges that have required technological innovation across the aerospace and defense industrial base.

“The high vibration, shock, and acceleration levels present on hypersonic vehicles calls upon extensive design and analysis expertise, which Moog has gained from previous work on launch vehicle applications,” said Bryan Dishner, Senior Project Engineer at Moog.

To address these challenges, Dishner and his colleagues at Moog, developed a technology that optimizes the size, weight, and power of the control system electronics in hypersonic vehicles. The concept, HyperPOWER, is an embodiment of the Integrated Navigation, Guidance & Controls (ING&C) concept that Moog is championing for hypervelocity vehicles. Dishner elaborated: “In practicality it is an integrated control system electronics package. This combines heritage Moog technology in actuation system controllers, propulsion system controllers and power distribution and management systems. The design leverages Moog’s proven track record with space flight electronics to meet exo-atmospheric radiation requirements.“

While the type of vehicles that HyperPOWER applies itself to are brand new, technologies for civil and military hypersonic applications have evolved over several decades.

Christopher Fritz, a Senior Design Engineer, explained how Moog identified the technology gap: “We saw an opportunity in the market as the customer prizes size, weight, and power reductions over existing technology. Moog is typically the largest driver of consumed volume with our core components, so the idea behind the ING&C approach is to increase the functionality at no expense of volume. Holistically we realize 15-25% volume reduction in the control system,” said Fritz. HyperPOWER increases control system performance, while decreasing volume and eliminating several cables. Bringing Moog into architecture formulation leads to optimized systems that are tightly integrated - significantly more so than an acquisition approach focused on one box for each function. “Beyond the key performance indicators, working with Moog as the entire control system supplier for these vehicles eliminates our customers’ burden working with several suppliers and managing interfaces between them,” explained Fritz.

“Moog can provide significant value to customers’ vehicle systems by providing a fully integrated actuation, propulsion, and power distribution system with a single controller in HyperPOWER. The controller can be tuned to achieve the vehicle goals across the entire mission,” said Fritz.

With a growing demand and advancements in hypersonic vehicle technologies, Moog will continue to mature the variants to service more applications in the evolving hypervelocity market.