University Consortium for Applied Hypersonics Seminar Series: Retrospective on the Boundary Layer Transition Flight Experiment

The Boundary Layer Transition experiment represents an evolution in basic science flight testing for hypersonics. From the inception of the flight experiment design, academia has partnered with a university affiliated research center, government, industry, and international partners. Together, this diverse team worked rapidly in close coordination to develop and execute a sounding rocket flight test intended to gather boundary-layer transition data on a complex geometry in the flight environment. Although the flight test ultimately did not achieve the desired experimental conditions, the Boundary Layer Transition research resulted in new experimental databases, new computational tool development for complicated hypersonic flows, and significant new workforce development through the inclusion of students in the program. This seminar will highlight the experimental and computational work by the team to characterize the transition phenomenology of the complex Boundary Layer Transition geometry, the critical contributions from academia and graduate students to the flight experiment design, and the benefits of this model of hypersonic flight testing for accelerating technology transition and workforce experience.     

RSVP by 5:00 pm on September 20, 2021.

Dr. Bradley M. Wheaton currently serves as a group Chief Scientist in the Force Projection Sector of Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory overseeing science and technology initiatives for a wide range of applications including hypersonics. Wheaton has served four years as the Principal Investigator of the Boundary Layer Transition flight experiment research effort, leading an international team of nine organizations across government, academia,  and industry. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in aerospace engineering with honors from University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign and his Masters of Science and Doctor of Philosophy from the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Purdue University at West Lafayette, IN.