Hypersonic Rocket Research at AST

#aerospace-engineering

Dear IEEE members and guests,

The next IEEE Control, Aerospace and Electronic Systems (CAES) seminar will be on Monday, 16 Februrary, 2026 at 7pm (Adelaide time). You can join virtually on webex. 

The speaker is Senior Research Engineer Joseph Luppino. He will be presenting a seminar on:

Hypersonic Rocket Research at AST

Abstract:

Vehicles that travel at hypersonic speeds, greater than 5 times the speed-of-sound, must withstand extreme loads. A designer's challenge lies in realising a design that can complete the intended mission while minimising cost. This presentation will introduce: what hypersonics is, who uses hypersonic technologies, and why maturing hypersonic technologies is difficult. 

This presentation also discusses the methods available for the testing and evaluation of hypersonic technologies. This presentation closes on the discussion of designing the Common Front End flight testbed - a proposed flight-testbed concept developed in collaboration between the University of New South Wales, Canberra and Lockheed Martin Australia. The purpose of the Common Front End is to increase opportunities to flight-test and mature emerging high-speed technologies developed by various government, industry, and university research groups.

Bio:

Joseph Luppino is a Senior Research Engineer at Lockheed Martin Australia’s Advanced Systems & Technologies (AST), formerly known as STELaRLab. AST is the OneLMA research and development entity in Australia which delivers world-class outcomes that support the defence and national security of Australia and its allies.

Joseph completed a Bachelor of Science in Experimental and Theoretical Physics, and a Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at The University of Adelaide. Joseph works across numerous projects and has experience in designing, modelling, simulating, and analysing high-speed systems.