No single scientist or engineer, no matter how smart, could solve the challenges of controlled, maneuverable flight of an aircraft or returning spacecraft traveling at more than five times the speed of sound.
The College of Engineering and Applied Science has launched three new interdisciplinary research themes as part of a broad push into growing and critical areas of study.
Boyd's work focuses on the physics problems of hypersonic flight. Vehicles that would travel at such high speeds build up incredible amounts of heat due to friction with the surrounding air. T