Hypersonic Vehicle Aerodynamic Design

At hypersonic speeds — Mach 5 and beyond — conventional
radome designs face a critical problem: direct contact
with moving air creates friction, which generates intense
heat, which causes sputtering — the physical destruction
of surface materials and electronic equipment inside.

This is one of the hardest unsolved problems in hypersonic
vehicle engineering.

Lavanyakumar Panuganti developed a novel radome design
that eliminates this problem at its root. The core insight:

Present design:
Direct contact → Friction → Heating → Sputtering →
Damage of equipment (electronic)

New design:
No direct contact → No friction → No heating →
No sputtering → No damage

By redesigning the geometry so that moving air has no
direct contact with the radome surface, the entire chain
of thermal damage is broken — without compromising the
aerodynamic performance of the vehicle.

This concept was presented to Dr. S.K. Chaudhuri,
Outstanding Scientist and Associate Director at RCI
(Research Centre Imarat), Hyderabad — one of India’s
premier missile systems laboratories under DRDO.

Dr. Chaudhuri’s written response, stamped with the
Government of India Ministry of Defence seal, stated:

“I have read the presentation — interested a bit,
looks very good. But needs deeper analysis.”

The original signed document is held by the founder.