These three volumes entitled Advances in Hypersonics contain the Proceedings of the Second and
Third Joint US Europe Short Course in Hypersonics which took place in Colorado Springs and
Aachen. The Second Course was organized at the US Air Force Academy USA in January 1989 and
the Third Course at Aachen Germany in October 1990. The main idea of these Courses was to
present to chemists com puter scientists engineers experimentalists mathematicians and
physicists state of the art lectures in scientific and technical dis ciplines including
mathematical modeling computational methods and experimental measurements necessary to define
the aerothermo dynamic environments for space vehicles such as the US Orbiter or the European
Hermes flying at hypersonic speeds. The subjects can be grouped into the following areas: Phys
ical environments configuration requirements propulsion systems (including airbreathing
systems) experimental methods for external and internal flow theoretical and numerical
methods. Since hyper sonic flight requires highly integrated systems the Short Courses not
only aimed to give in-depth analysis of hypersonic research and technology but also tried to
broaden the view of attendees to give them the ability to understand the complex problem of
hypersonic flight. Most of the participants in the Short Courses prepared a docu ment based on
their presentation for reproduction in the three vol umes. Some authors spent considerable time
and energy going well beyond their oral presentation to provide a quality assessment of the
state of the art in their area of expertise as of 1989 and 1991.
