Novel approach for designing a hypersonic gliding–cruising dual waverider vehicle

• A suitable aerodynamic configuration for the gliding–cruising ballistic flight concept was analyzed.
• A new design concept, namely a gliding–cruising dual waverider, was proposed.
• This methodology proposed is useful to design a hypersonic vehicle for two regimes of flight.

For a hypersonic gliding–cruising vehicle, the gliding Mach number is larger than the cruising Mach number. It may be useful to design the inlet shroud to act as the compression surface of the waverider, to ensure that the vehicle rides on the shock wave, during both the gliding and cruising phases. A new design concept, namely a gliding–cruising dual waverider, is proposed in the current study. During the gliding phase, the hypersonic vehicle rides on the shock wave at the design gliding Mach number, as the inlet shroud is designed to act as waverider׳s compression surface. During the cruising phase, when the inlet shroud is cast away or jettisoned, the hypersonic vehicle rides on the shock wave at the design cruising Mach number, as the forebody is designed to act as waverider׳s compression surface. Thus, the design methodology of the dual-cone-derived waverider is described based on the theory of conical flow. Finally, the numerical methods are utilized to verify the new design method of the aerodynamic configuration. This methodology proposed is useful to design a hypersonic vehicle for two regimes of flight.