Born from the challenge of the Space Race, UCF was created to transform imagination into innovation and prepare people to launch humanity beyond its limits. Today, we are still are a place where our people’s curiosity drives discovery, bold questions shape the future and exploration advances life on Earth.
Founded to reach the moon, we’re already on our way to the next frontier. Built for liftoff, America’s Space University celebrates UCF Space Week Nov. 3-7.
Where Global Leaders Unite to Boldly Forge the Future of Space
UCF aerospace engineering graduate research assistant Justin Sprunger ’22 ’25MS says he can trace his earliest memory to gazing at the space shuttle when he was 4. Before the age of 10, he was testing the limits of homemade bottle rockets, relentlessly experimenting with ways to increase speed.
In a lot of ways, his job today as a propulsion engineer and hypersonics facility director at the Center of Excellence in Hypersonic and Space Propulsion (also known as the HyperSpace Center) is rooted in that same curiosity and innovation his younger self embraced so whole-heartedly.
So when the lab’s large-scale hypersonic wind tunnel HADES becomes operational later this month, he is eager to push the limits once again in pursuit of revolutionizing travel as we know it.
HADES — which stands for high enthalpy altitude-stimulating dynamic experimental system — will prove crucial to the HyperSpace Center’s hypersonic and space propulsion research for scientists and strategic partners across the globe. UCF is the first university in the nation to have hypersonic technology at this scale.
The wind tunnel will be able to replicate the pressure and temperature of atmospheric conditions needed to figure out the keys to unlocking speeds that could one day allow a commercial airliner to fly from New York to London in less than 15 minutes.
“I’ve been staring at this thing on my computer screen with the 3D model for over a year. To watch the evolution of something that started as an idea to now in front of you in person is… I don’t think there’s a better reward, honestly,” Sprunger says. “As a fundamental researcher looking into all these problems that we face, you always come up with these hypotheses. ‘Oh, if we could just do this experiment,’ or ‘If we could hold this one thing constant, then I’d be able to see everything.’ And with this facility coming online, those once-impossible ideas will now start to become a possibility.”
Not Just ‘Hype’ Anymore
NASA, and its predecessor the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, has been involved in the study of hypersonic flight since the 1950s, though technology of the time limited much progress in the field. In the early 2000s, things started to change when NASA aircraft set two airbreathing speed Guinness World Records at Mach 7 (5,370 mph) and at Mach 10 (7,672 mph), respectively, as part of its Hyper-X Program.
Now, Sprunger says, technology has advanced to the point that it’s viable to be investing significant resources in this area of research.
Which brings us to the HyperSpace Center, which launched in October 2024 as a first-of-its-kind partnership with the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research that provides a centralized, physical space to advance hypersonic technology.
The work conducted in this unassuming one-story, gray rectangular building on the perimeter of Central Florida’s Research Park will build on Trustee Chair Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Kareem Ahmed’s progress so far, including development of the first hypersonic detonation rocket engine in 2020.
So how does HADES fit into this?
HADES stands for high enthalpy altitude-stimulating dynamic experimental system.
High enthalpy translates to very hot, or a lot of energy.
Altitude-simulating attributes to the atmosphere’s range of pressures and temperatures. With this facility, Sprunger and the team will be able to adjust elements to simulate the low-pressure altitude environment that’s important for outer body aerodynamic tests.
Dynamic refers to the range of tests it can conduct, which is novel compared to wind tunnels at other institutions. The Florida Center for Advanced Aero-Propulsion in Tallahassee has a Polysonic wind tunnel that has the ability for long run times and can reach up to Mach 5, but its downside is its cold. University of Illinois’ ACT-II tunnel is an arc-heated tunnel that has capabilities for high Mach numbers and flight relevant enthalpies, but it is limited to run times of around 1 second.
Simply put, HADES can do it all, which will attract researchers because it allows for long run times while also customizing and accounting for the pressure and temperature they need in the atmosphere to strengthen the data of their experiments.
“We’re going to be able to hit all the high Mach numbers; we’re going to be able to do it for long durations; and we’re going to be able to match the enthalpy of a flight,” Sprunger says. “So we’re taking the high temperature, the high pressure, the long duration, and we’re making a facility that’s going to be able to do that over and over and over again.”
Mission IX
When Ahmed conceptualized HADES three years ago and aerospace and mechanical engineering alum Jonathan Reyes ’15 ’17MS ’19PhD led the design-into-action, he — nor anyone else on the HyperSpace team — fathomed it would one day be tied to a UCF football game.
When the Knights kick off the ninth installment of our annual space game Nov. 7, the players’ uniforms will prominently feature a diagram of HADES’ fueling apparatus. It’s the piece that funnels in the air and fuel to the targeted location of the tunnel.
When members of the Athletics brand team contacted the lab to explore the possibility of centering the Mission IX game’s theme on HyperSpace, graduate research assistant Nate Dreyer ’26MS crafted original concepts and key information as source material for the uniform design team to draw inspiration from.
“A lot of members of my team are huge sports guys, so we had so much fun being involved and part of this year’s game,” Sprunger says. “It really is about celebrating the university and demonstrating the capabilities we have here.”
