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HiFIRE = Hypersonic International Flight Research Experimentation<br /><br /><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p><b>Multi-national agreement to advance high-speed flight</b><br /><br />AFRL NEWS RELEASE<br />Posted: November 14, 2006<br /><br />The U.S. Air Force and Australian Department of Defence signed a multi-national research partnership Nov. 10 in Canberra, Australia, which will explore and develop fundamental hypersonic technologies, and experimental methodologies that could enable the next generation of weapon systems.<br /><br />The $54 million agreement represents one of the largest collaborations of its kind between the two nations. The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, and the Australian Defence Science and Technology Organisation are leading the effort, including coordination of research tasks to be performed with NASA, U.S. industry, the Australian Hypersonics Consortium, and the Hypersonics Research Group at the University of Queensland.<br /><br />Air Force chief scientist Dr. Mark Lewis, and Australian chief defence scientist Dr. Roger Lough, signed the agreement Nov. 10 at a joint meeting in Canberra, which officially kicks off the project. The research effort has been established under a new bi-lateral agreement, secured under the existing Deutch-Ayers Memorandum of Understanding.<br /><br />Called HiFIRE, or Hypersonic International Flight Research Experimentation, the program will span six years of basic and applied research, with the goal to observe and understand hypersonic phenomena. The program also includes up to 10 flight experiments using an experimental payload, launched to realistic hypersonic flight conditions. Hypersonic speeds are reached at Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound. <br /> /><p><hr /></p></p></blockquote> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>