Metadata
Title
Oxford Thermofluids Institute
Category
undergraduate
UUID
0e0f3680478443ba83de78b542b4186c
Source URL
https://oti.eng.ox.ac.uk/research/research-themes/hypersonics
Parent URL
https://oti.eng.ox.ac.uk/
Crawl Time
2026-03-09T03:28:22+00:00
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Oxford Thermofluids Institute

Source: https://oti.eng.ox.ac.uk/research/research-themes/hypersonics Parent: https://oti.eng.ox.ac.uk/

The recent interest in commercial space flight and hypersonic air travel from companies such as Reaction Engines, Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin and SpaceX (among others) has considerably raised the importance of hypersonics research. Hypersonics is the study of high-speed flight, typically Mach 5 (five-times the speed of sound) or higher. At these high speeds, substantial changes in airflow occur.

Research in the field typically focuses on modelling the physics of these flows and understanding the changes caused by this in engine components in order to mitigate their effects.

Hypersonics research at the Oxford Thermofluids Institute dates back to Prof. Donald Schultz’s pioneering work in the 1960s. Our focus is primarily on experimental research relevant to planetary entry, atmospheric cruise and access to space.

Our world leading Hypersonics Group’s expertise spans the following areas: