COMPUTER MODELING AND COMPARISON OF HYDROGEN-FUELED AND METHANE-FUELED HYPERSONIC VEHICLES

As a result of the successful operations of the supersonic passenger plane, Concorde, attention is being focused on hypersonic passenger airplanes in order to reduce long distance flight times, such as the flights across the Atlantic and the Pacific. Possible fuels for such transportation are liquid methane and liquid hydrogen. The paper compares these two cryogenic fuels for hypersonic passenger transportation. The results show that the hydrogen-fueled hypersonic vehicle is superior to the methane-fueled hypersonic vehicle for a non-stop flight range of 6000 nautical miles. Additionally. studies on safety also show that hydrogen is the safer fuel.